Category World News

As Canada attempts to defuse a growing trade war, US President Donald Trump has escalated his rhetorical conflict with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trump accessed Truth Social on Wednesday to share his version of a meeting he had with Trudeau during lunch.

Without providing any specifics, Trump said, “The call ended in a “middle-of-a friendly manner.”

However, the Republican leader did accuse Trudeau of not doing enough to combat fentanyl trafficking, which experts believe poses only minor security along the Canadian border.

Trump has openly questioned Trudeau’s influence on the upcoming federal elections in Canada, as he has done with other world leaders. He also has attempted to question the legitimacy of his government.

Tariff pressure

The US’s two largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, as well as its neighbors, have been the subject of high-level negotiations, which come one day after Trump imposed 25-percent tariffs on products from both of its neighbors, the US.

The two nations had been accustom to those high tariffs for some time.

Trump made the announcement shortly after taking office in November that he would use the 25% tariffs to impose a tighter border between Canada and Mexico.

He also mentioned that Canada could renounce its country’s sovereignty and acquiesce to the US’s 51st state by avoiding such exorbitant tariffs.

Trump set a date for the beginning of February as soon as they take office on January 20. However, both Canada and Mexico made compromises that allowed the tariffs to be delayed to prevent the anticipated economic harms.

For Mexico, that meant deploying 10, 000 National Guard personnel to the US border. The compromise also included the creation of a “fentanyl tsar” and a task force to combat drug trafficking for Canada.

The delay ended on Tuesday, and now the US tariffs are in effect.

The nascent trade war’s opening salvoes were immediately followed by Canada and Mexico with their own retaliatory tariffs.

We are polite and Canadians are reasonable. However, we won’t back down in a fight. Not when our nation’s well-being and that of everyone in it are at stake,” Trudeau said on Tuesday.

He warned that a trade standoff would harm all three countries’ economies.

The “big three” US automakers, Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors, successfully petitioned Trump for a one-month exemption from the tariffs on Wednesday, causing a number of industries to be rattled by the hefty import duties already.

Canada has meanwhile filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization about the high tariffs and has vowed to end the trade dispute with the Trump administration.

The tariffs are in contravention of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which was signed into force during Trump’s first term, according to it.

Concentrate on fentanyl

Trump cited fentanyl as the main issue in the tariff negotiations in his Truth Social post on Wednesday.

What could be done about tariffs, Justin Trudeau, of Canada, called me. Nothing has persuaded me that Fentanyl has stopped, as I told him, and it had already killed so many people who crossed the border between Canada and Mexico, Trump wrote.

He claimed that the quality had improved, but I responded, “That’s not good enough.”

Given the relatively small amounts of fentanyl that enter the US from the north, experts have questioned whether the focus on fentanyl at the Canadian border is misplaced.

The tariffs have been referred to as “unjustified” by Canada itself. It has pointed out that less than 1% of fentanyl is seized along the US’s shared border, according to the US government’s own statistics.

Only about 19.5 kilogrammes (43 pounds) were sequestered at the nation’s northern border for the fiscal year 2024, according to the US Customs and Border Protection website.

More than 9, 934 kg (21, 900 pounds) were seized in the US that year, out of a total of more than 9, 934 kg (21, 900 pounds).

Trump criticized Trudeau on Wednesday for “Weak Border Policies,” which are “responsible for the death of many people.”

And his administration defended its tariffs by defending itself against accusations that it had invented a problem.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt yelled at a reporter at a news briefing on Wednesday, citing how much fentanyl imported from Canada could fit into a “carry-on suitcase.”

You’re asking me what the president’s justification for these tariffs is. You decide not, of course. Leavitt responded, “You’re not the president.” “Frankly, I think it’s a little disrespectful to the families who have lost loved ones as a result of this deadly poison,” the author said.

contesting the elections in Canada

Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s finance minister, stated on Tuesday that he and his US counterpart, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, have been negotiating ways to avoid the tariffs and that he has been speaking with him on the CBC television program The National.

LeBlanc argued, however, that the only solution would be to have the tariffs completely eliminated. He demanded that the US “return to adhering to the free trade agreement.”

LeBlanc stated, “We don’t want to see a tariff reduction in any way.” Once the tariffs are lifted, we want the United States and Mexico’s free trade agreement to be respected, and we’ll work with the US government on issues.

He continued, “This is not going to go down the tariffs or meeting someone halfway.” We want to prevent tariffs on Canadian goods and services from entering the country.

Trump has, however, used the tariffs as a means of compulsion to ally himself with the US and abandon Canada.

Trump has repeatedly vowed to expand US territory abroad during his second term, including by “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, a claim he made in a joint statement to the US Congress on Tuesday.

Trump once more referred to Trudeau as a “governor,” a term used by US presidents on Wednesday.

He also made an attempt to make people question whether Trudeau’s position of power was legitimate by proposing conspiratorially in relation to the upcoming federal elections in Canada.

Trump wrote of Trudeau, “He was unable to tell me when the Canadian election is taking place, which piqued my interest.” What’s happening here, exactly? Then I realized that he is attempting to maintain power through this problem. Good luck, Justin”!

Trump has a history of questioning the legitimacy of other leaders. He referred to another elected official, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a “dictator” in February because he allegedly rigged election results during the war. Russia is currently preventing a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

However, Trump’s attempts to demonize Trudeau may have had the opposite effect.

After years of trailing the Conservative Party of Canada in the polls, Trudeau’s Liberal Party resurrected popular support, which some experts attribute in part to a backlash against Trump.

On March 9, Trudeau will resign as leader of the Liberal Party after winning his replacement.

The proposed beach resort at Summit is in line with US President Donald Trump’s plans.

A catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan, where millions of people are at risk of dying from malnutrition-related illnesses, is beingexacerbated by the US’s decision to suspend foreign aid.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has suspended nearly all of the global projects it funds, and its administration took leave of the majority of its employees since taking office in January.

USAID contributed $44.4 million to Sudan’s $1 last year. Despite the UN’s recommendation, there was an $8 billion humanitarian response.

A portion of this money went toward funding Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), neighborhood relief organizations that help run hundreds of “community kitchens” across the nation.

When USAID stopped providing any funding, about 80% of the 1,460 community kitchens in Sudan were shut down, according to Hajooj Kuka, the state’s ERRs’ spokesperson.

bridging the void

Local and international relief workers claim that communal kitchens have kept hundreds of thousands of people alive in areas where UN agencies and global relief organizations are unable to reach due to the wilful obstruction of aid by the warring parties since a power conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into civil war in April 2023.

More than 600,000 people in Sudan are currently experiencing famine levels, and eight million are in danger of going into famine, according to the UN Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor.

The current pause in USAID funding could only make the situation worse.

Some organizations have been granted waivers from the US government to continue providing life-saving services, according to Iyad Agha, the humanitarian coordinator for international nongovernmental organizations in Sudan.

However, many of these services were ultimately discontinued after the US determined that they were insufficient to provide for life. Days later, the Trump administration reinstated some terminations and made certain services resume.

Agha claimed that Washington’s choices are “completely random.”

In the midst of the chaos and confusion, NGOs are paralyzed and unsure of how to proceed, and the Sudanese people who need aid are the most affected, he told Al Jazeera.

There is a “large gap” to close, Agha added, if some other donors want to step in [for the lack of USAID].

Finding alternative funding has become a priority for ERRs.

In order to continue serving beleaguered civilians during the holy month of Ramadan, which officially began earlier in March, Kwaka claimed that community kitchens have gotten funding from the Sudanese diaspora and smaller charitable organizations.

Despite their efforts, 63 percent of community kitchens have been shut down since the US government stopped the majority of foreign aid, according to Kuka.

There are only certain things we can do. He claimed that there simply isn’t enough food for everyone.

However, we’ve started an online donation drive, and during Ramadan, people typically donate more during this time, he continued.

Looting and obstacles

Local and international relief workers claim that the hunger crisis was brought on by both sides of Sudan’s civil war.

Some relief workers cite the fact that UN agencies recognize the Sudanese army as the de facto ruling body.

The army has the authority to approve or reject aid shipments coming from neighboring nations like Chad and South Sudan, which the army does not control. Prior to joining forces with the relevant authorities in each area of Sudan, critics have previously advised humanitarians to do so in order to reach as many needy people as possible.

Additionally, UN organizations that view the army as the de facto government are required to conduct all humanitarian operations from Port Sudan, which makes it logistically challenging to reach remote areas like the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan and Darfur.

Additionally, the army is accused of imposing bureaucratic restrictions that prevent and slow aid shipments.

The army’s procedures are cumbersome, according to the article. The World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson, Leni Kinzli, described the process as being “a mountain of paperwork.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Intelligence Services, the Humanitarian Aid Commission, and the National Intelligence Services are just a few of the organizations we work with.

We need a stamp from all of those organizations, she told Al Jazeera, essentially, for any [aid truck to move].

Additionally, the SAF is accused of preventing aid to areas under the control of RSF by humanitarian workers and analysts. However, Nabil Abdullah, a spokesman for the army, has repeatedly refuted this claim and criticized the RSF for starving civilians.

The ERR’s spokesperson in Sharq el-Nile, a sprawling Khartoum district, claimed that the RSF had made the hunger crisis worse.

She claimed that the group had attacked all of Khartoum’s main markets ahead of Ramadan, and that many residents were hesitant to leave their neighborhoods because they were concerned that civilians might be targeted at RSF checkpoints.

People run away because the RSF frequently robs people of their phones and money, she told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera reached the RSF’s press office to inquire about reports that its fighters are looting markets and robbing civilians at gunpoint, but the organization did not respond before it was published.

hunger and insecurities

Local relief organizations and aid organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to reach beleaguered civilians as the conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese army grows.

When the RSF shelled the camp on February 10 and 11, the WFP was forced to halt aid operations in the Zamzam displacement camp, where more than 500,000 people are residing and struggling to survive a famine.

Through a regional organization, World Food Programme (WFP) was offering food vouchers to about 60,000 Zamzam residents.

Our ground partners had to resign. Due to RSF shelling, they were forced to flee for their lives, which is why we had to halt assistance, according to Kinzli, the organization’s spokesperson.

The few remaining communal kitchens are attempting to feed the countless new arrivals, but the conflict for Khartoum also causes significant displacement throughout Sharq el-Nile.

Kuka claims that many people try to find fish in the Nile or grow vegetables in their gardens, but the amount of food they can eat is hardly sufficient.

He stated that ERRs are contacting UN agencies and the European Union to try to close the USAID gap left behind. Kuka warned that hundreds of thousands of people will starve and die from malnutrition-related diseases if no one takes action.

We are discussing a number one. 8 million people use these kitchens. What does it mean for them to no longer receive food? Kuka remarked.

“People are already enthralled,” We are merely making our best efforts to prevent Sudan from becoming a total famine.   However, the country will experience more and more pockets of famine if this [food shortage] persists. ”