The Canadian foreign minster has issued a stark warning that ‘nobody is safe’ from Donald Trump’s tariffs as she prepares to welcomed her G7 counterparts today.

Foreign ministers of leading Western democracies will meet in Canada today after seven weeks of rising tensions between US allies and Trump over his upending of foreign policy on Ukraine and imposing of tariffs.  

Trump on Wednesday imposed 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports immediately drew reciprocal measures from Canada and the European Union, prompting a fiery response from America’s northern neighbor.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly hit out at Trump for leveling ‘unjustifiable’ tariffs against Canada and trying to ‘annex our country through economic coercion’.

‘If the US can do this to us, their closest friend, then nobody is safe,’ Joly warned as she delivered a searing speech in Ottawa, Politico reports.

Joly criticized Trump for his regularly changing and ‘exaggerated’ justifications for the tariffs, noting that threats of ‘further and broader’ measures on April 2 still loom.

‘We have done nothing to justify Trump’s attacks on our country, on our economy and our identity,’ she said. ‘Canada is your best friend, best neighbor and best ally.’ 

Relations between the US and Canada are at an all-time low, thanks to Trump’s tariffs threats and constant musing about annexing the country to make it the 51st US state.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has tried to downplay Trump’s comments, alleging the president believes Canada should join the US ‘from an economic standpoint.’ 

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has warned that ‘nobody is safe’ from Donald Trump ‘s tariffs as she prepares to welcomed her G7 counterparts today

Trump on Wednesday imposed 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports immediately drew reciprocal measures from Canada and the European Union, prompting a fiery response from America’s northern neighbor

Joly, who along with Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc is leading the charge on Canada’s tariff response, criticized Trump for his always shifting tariff justifications.

‘The excuse for the first round was exaggerated claims about our border. We addressed all the concerns raised by the US,’ Joly said.  

‘The latest excuse is national security despite the fact that Canada’s steel and aluminum adds to America’s security.’

Joly said the ‘only constant’ in what she branded an ‘unjustifiable trade war’ is Trump’s talk of annexing Canada ‘through economic coercion’.

‘Yesterday, he called our border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric,’ she said. ‘Well, Canadians have made it very clear that we will not back down, and we will not give in to this coercion.’

Trump on Tuesday claimed the US-Canadian border is an ‘artificial line’ that appears as if it was drawn ‘with a ruler.’

‘When you take away that, and you look at that beautiful formation of Canada and the United States, there’s no place anywhere in the world that looks like that,’ he said.

Rubio, however, has tried to minimize Trump’s remarks, telling reporters that what Trump really means is that if Canada became a US state ‘we wouldn’t have to worry about the border and fentanyl coming across because now we would be able to manage that’.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio however, has tried to downplay Trump’s remarks, telling reporters that the G7 ‘is not a meeting about how we’re going to take over Canada’

Seven ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with the EU, will gether in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, Quebec today for the G-7 meeting.

They will spend two days in meetings that in the past have broadly been consensual on the issues they face.

Top of the agenda for Washington’s partners will be getting a debriefing on Rubio’s talks on Tuesday with Kyiv in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Ukraine said it was ready to support a 30-day ceasefire deal.

But in the run-up to the first G7 meeting of Canada’s presidency, the crafting of an agreed all-encompassing final statement has been tough.

Washington has sought to impose red lines on language around Ukraine and opposed a separate declaration on curbing Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, a murky shipping network that eludes sanctions, while demanding more robust language on China.

On Monday, Rubio cautioned that Washington did not want language that could harm efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine to the table. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday he said a good G7 statement would recognise that the United States has moved the process to end the war forward.

G7 diplomats said the positive outcome from Jeddah may at least ease talks on Ukraine.

The US, since Trump’s return to office on January 20, has taken a less-friendly stance on Ukraine, pushing for a quick deal to end the war, demanded European partners take on more of the burden without openly endorsing their role in future talks, and warmed Washington’s ties with Moscow.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and shake hands with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the G7 meeting of foreign ministers in Charlevoix, Quebec, on March 13, 2025

‘We’re going to be focused in the G7 on all of those things. That’s what the meeting is about. It is not a meeting about how we’re going to take over Canada,’ Rubio told reporters, highlighting how offbeat their ties have become.

That may not appease Ottawa, with Joly saying on Wednesday she would be on the offensive at the G7.

‘In every single meeting, I will raise the issue of tariffs to coordinate a response with the Europeans and to put pressure on the Americans,’ she said.

Even Japan, so reliant on American security guarantees, has found itself in Trump’s firing line.

‘It’s very difficult. Maybe we should wait for the G8,’ said one European diplomat ironically.

Trump has suggested the G8 might be revived with the return of Moscow 11 years after its membership in the group was suspended over its annexation of Crimea.

Nowhere have the difficulties for US allies been more apparent than in Canada.

European diplomats have also said they hoped to use the G7 to assess directly how much influence Rubio has on US foreign policy.

Trump has used a wide array of officials not linked to the State Department in talks ranging from Ukraine to the situation in the Middle East, where allies have been alarmed by some of the erratic statements coming from Washington.