The Great American Trade War of 2025

Upon his inauguration as president of the United States, Donald Trump announced several changes being planned for his country including large tariffs on imported goods and the dismantling of many current global trade agreements. Amid growing concern with the trade war in the United States of America, countries around the globe are scrambling to find alternative resources and emphasizing the importance of current resource trading agreements. In January of 2025, it was reported by CBC News that Donald Trump felt that the United States does not need anything imported from Canada including lumber, oil, and gas (CBC News, 2025).

 

While the United States does contain a large number of forests, a significant portion of softwood lumber is imported from Canada. According to Natural Resources Canada, "In 2020, Canada was the second largest producer of softwood lumber globally" and exported over 50% of this wood to the United States (Natural Resources Canada, 2025). Softwood lumber is ideal for building a majority of homes, office buildings, and other crucial structures making this a very important resource for the United States. Additionally, the softwood lumber industry provides thousands of citizens with jobs across Canada. If the United States begins shifting trade agreements to other countries, many Canadian jobs will be terminated causing those citizens to search for careers in an already stagnant job market.

 

Additionally, oil is an essential trading resource for both the United States as well as Canada due to both countries producing a different type of oil and having different processing facilities to refine the oil. While the United States is currently the largest producer of crude oil and has many facilities for refining, Canada holds many of the facilities that are needed to process oil from the United States. Canada also imports oil from the United States due to much of western Canada being landlocked and unable to access oil at the same rate as the rest of the country (Natural Resources Canada, 2024). Cutting back on oil trades between the United States and Canada will be detrimental to the job market of both countries as the oil sector provides thousands jobs to citizens all across North America.

 

Furthermore, Natural gas is a crucial resource used by both countries to generate electricity, fuel vehicles, generate heat, and much more. In 2023, nearly 100% of natural gas imported into the United States was provided by Canadian sources (Canada Energy Regulator, 2025). These Canadian sources accounted for approximately 85% of all electric energy imported by the United States. Decreasing the amount of natural gas imported to the United States will greatly impact the number of Canadian jobs as well as making this resource more costly for citizens of both countries.

 

In summary, the trading of essential resources such as lumber, oil, and gas is crucial for the growth and success of the economy throughout all of North America. Without the current trade agreements, citizens across the continent will continue to lose jobs and be forced to find careers in an already declining job market. The trading of these essential resources brings wealth, energy, and mutual benefit to both countries proving that the United States does in fact need resources from Canada.