Why Trump and Carney Haven’t Touched Energy in Their Tariff War
6 Million Barrels in Two Minutes Draws CFTC Scrutiny Haley Zaremba is an energy journalist and researcher with more than a decade of professional experience covering global energy systems, land and natural resources, and… The United States and Canada are locked in an energy trade war – sort of.
Although United States President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have lobbed plenty of blisteringly high tariffs, not to mention threats and insults, at each other over the course of their respective tenures, they have not touched one very important commodity – oil and gas.
This is because the nations are simply too dependent on each other to sever the ties between their respective fossil fuel empires, making true independence a purely pyrrhic possibility.
Canada is the singlebiggest international supplier of petroleumto the United States, amounting to half of the country’s foreign petroleum imports.
There are also more than 30major electricity transmission pointsbetween the United States and Canada, making Canada the only foreign country to directly supply electricity to the States.
The longest transmission line, bringing electricity produced from Canadian hydropower directly to New York City,was just completed in June.
Huge parts of the Northeast United States are heavily dependent on Canadian hydro to power their grids, while the country’s energy sector as a whole is largely dependent on Canadian fossil fuels.
This dependency is reflected in the political fighting between the two countries.
Back in July of this year, Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on a wide range of Canadian imports to the United States, which Canada then reciprocated for American imports to Canada.
But oil, gas, electricity, and some petroleum products werenotably exempt from the bill.
While Donald Trump has talked a big game about cutting Canada out of the United States’ energy sector, “the facts, and his own policies, say otherwise” according to arecent headlinefrom Canadian news outlet Energy Now.
“The reality is that Canadian and American energy systems have been constructed over decades as one highly integrated continental network,” the report goes on to detail.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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