During his Tuesday meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, President Donald Trump falsely minimized the importance of the US trade relationship with Canada.
“We don’t do much business with Canada from our standpoint. They do a lot of business with us. We’re at like 4%,” Trump said.
That “4%” figure is wrong. Official US data shows that Canada bought about 17% of US goods exports in February and March, the last month for which data is available – more than any other country. Canada bought about 16% of US goods exports in January, second only to Mexico.
Trump’s “we don’t do much business with Canada from our standpoint” claim is too subjective to render a definitive fact-check verdict, but Carney’s remark that “we are the largest client of the United States” is confirmed by the US government itself. Official US data shows that Canada bought about $440 billion worth of US goods and services in 2024, more than any other country, and the Office of the US Trade Representative notes on its website that “in 2024, Canada was the top destination for U.S. exports” as well as “the third-largest source of U.S. imports.”
Trump also repeated his frequent claim that the US is “subsidizing Canada to the tune of maybe $200 billion per year.” Trump has previously made clear that he is speaking about the US trade deficit with Canada, but that is not even close to $200 billion. Official US statistics show the 2024 deficit with Canada in goods and services trade was about $36 billion.
Even if you only count trade in goods and ignore the services trade at which the US excels, the deficit was about $71 billion. And even if he was this time using the word “subsidizing” to describe unspecified other things in addition to the trade deficit, there is no basis for the claim.
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