President Donald Trump waded into the tariff territory again by toying with the idea of slapping a fine on Canada, holding it responsible for smoke billowing from wildfires raging in the northern neighboring country that has swamped many parts of the US.
The dangerous smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires are impacting over 100 million Americans across more than a dozen states, ABC News reported.
Trump has said Ottawa is to be blamed for the wildfire smoke spreading across the United States. He plans to add the "incalculable cost" of dealing with the pollution to existing tariffs on Canadian goods.
Millions of people in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states had been impacted by unhealthy air from uncontrolled wildfires on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
Wildfires are burning in the Ontario area of Canada as well as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, which US authorities have shut. More than 100 wildfires have been reported in Canada though the week.
The conditions are expected to persist through Saturday across a wide swath of the US.
Air quality alerts have been issued in New York, Chicago, Toronto and more, with officials urging folks to stay inside, Axios reported.
Trump said on Truth Social that he plans to call Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney to speak about the issue.
"We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!"
The US President also alleged Canada has refused to engage in basic forest management and debris removal, despite knowing that it will lead to this situation.
"This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying," Trump's post said.
Exposure to harmful wildfire smoke in the US per-person was four times higher during 2020-2024, on average each year, than during 2006-2019, according to a Climate Central report.
The Axios report said researchers have shown that human-induced climate change is making wildfires more likely and more intense, though it said it is too early to link these wildfires directly to climate change, according to an Axios report.
It said wildfires are likely to occur with more frequency as North America's forests keep drying up.
Canadian authorities are yet to come out with a response to Trump's threat, though it has said the wildfire crisis is worsening, due in part to a hotter and drier climate.
On Thursday, Carney had referred indirectly to the US while defending Canada's response to the natural disaster, by citing Washington's opposition to climate policies.
In 2024, Canada had initiated the Canadian Wildland Fire Prevention and Mitigation Strategy, as a preventive effort.
In his second term in office, Trump has suspended US backing for international climate initiatives and research groups. In March, a group of universities had also sued theUS administration for its efforts to dismantle the country's largest federal climate research center.
The US President's threat to raise tariffs against Canada assumes significance as Washington had said on July 1 that it plans to drop out of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
