Foreign Minister Joly Says Fertilizer, Energy Could Be Bargaining Chips Against US Tariffs

Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly discusses Canada-United States relations during a luncheon with the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal in Montreal on Feb. 4, 2025. The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Ottawa is prepared to use Canadian exports of energy, fertilizer, and uranium as bargaining chips in negotiations with the United States over tariffs, but that it wants the premiers and Canadians to be on board.

“We haven’t put that on the table yet. We kept that ... in our cards, as cards that we could potentially play if this would escalate, and the U.S. knows that,” Joly said during a discussion on Canada-U.S. relations at the Toronto Region Board of Trade.

The United States put 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports and 10 percent tariffs on Canadian energy on March 4. In response, Ottawa imposed reciprocal tariffs on $155 billion worth of American goods, with $30 billion coming into force immediately and the other $125 billion starting in 21 days.

U.S. President Donald Trump held a phone call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 5 to discuss the tariffs, and said on Truth Social that he'd told the the prime minister that Canada’s action on border security had been “not good enough.” Trump has connected the 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico to the two countries taking insufficient action on illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

Joly said that 95 percent of the uranium the United States uses for nuclear sites in states like Georgia and North Carolina is imported from Canada. She also mentioned the northern U.S. states’ “over-reliance” on hydro from Ontario and Quebec, and on potash from Saskatchewan that is used for fertilizer.

However, Joly said that if Canada were to use these “cards” in negotiations, Canadians and the premiers would need to support such a move. “I think that we’ve seen, bit by bit, even more unity coming out of the Council of Premiers, which is important,” she said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly said he is open to cutting off energy exports to American states like Michigan, New York, and Minnesota. According to Statistics Canada, Ontario was the largest Canadian provider of electricity to the United States in 2023, exporting 13.9 million megawatt-hours of electricity south of the border.

“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything, including cut off their energy with a smile on my face,” he said on March 3.

The premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan have been strongly against using export tariffs on oil and gas export to the United States.

Smith previously said on March 5 that the province held a “trump card” in easing trade relations with the United States. “Alberta happens to have one of the largest deposits of oil and natural gas on the planet,” she said.

“The Alberta government wants to facilitate and to partner with U.S. companies and even the U.S. government to achieve their energy goals ... But how can Alberta actively partner to expand pipeline access to the United States when its president just slapped a 10 percent tariff on our energy products and is devastating the other industries in our province, in our country,” she said.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has said he does not think the federal government should put export tariffs on potash to the United States.

Joly also said the next prime minister and Liberal Party leader, who is set to be chosen on March 9, will have to decide whether using Canada’s energy, fertilizer, and uranium as negotiating tools is a “clear priority.”

Joly Says US ‘Threatening’ Canada

During an interview with BBC News on March 4, Joly said officials in Ottawa were taking Trump’s repeated threats of making Canada into the 51st state “very seriously.” Trump has said Canadians would pay lower taxes and have better military protection if they were to join the United States, and has repeatedly called Trudeau the “governor” of a “great state.”

Joly said during recent discussions with U.S. officials, they had brought up more than just border security and Canada’s efforts to reduce illegal immigration and fentanyl. “They’ve put everything on the table—our military cooperation, security alliances, water,” she said.

“So they’ve been threatening us on different things, and now we wanted to make sure that the Canadian public and the world was clearly informed of what’s going on.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Trump’s 51st state remarks regarding Canada began after Trudeau met him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in November, telling him that Canada would “cease to exist” with high American tariffs, to which Rubio said Trump responded, “well, if you can’t exist without cheating in trade, then you should become a state.”

Joly was also asked about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s comments that day that Trump may decide to roll back some of the tariffs on March 5. “We know when it comes to the different secretaries of the Trump administration, they can say many things, but at the end of the day, the only one that really makes a decision is President Trump,” Joly responded.

Joly said Canada had done “everything that was required under the executive order” to secure the Canada–U.S. border. Ottawa has introduced a $1.3 billion border security package that included the creation of a new North American task force targeting organized crime and synthetic drug trafficking, as well as 24/7 border surveillance, appointed a “fentanyl czar,” and designated drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

“But at the end of the day ... let’s be frank, this is a bogus excuse on the part of the Trump administration against us,” Joly said. “The U.S. is a net exporter of illegal drugs to Canada. It is a net exporter of illegal migrants to Canada. Canadians know this. They see through what is happening, and so that’s why we’re all united and all rallying up around our beautiful flag.”

Trump said in a social media post on March 5 that in a phone call with Trudeau, he told them that “many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped.”