Trump on U.S. Imports of Oil and Lumber

Days before he ordered, and then paused, new tariffs on U.S. imports from Canada and Mexico, President Donald Trump argued that the U.S. does not need imported products such as crude oil and lumber from those countries.

Experts told us that, in theory, if the U.S. stopped importing crude oil and lumber from Canada and Mexico, it still would be able to meet domestic demand using natural resources available in the U.S. But, in reality, they said, the transition would be costly and take some time to implement, among other complications.

On Jan. 30, while talking with reporters about the tariffs he would announce two days later, Trump said: “Look, Mexico and Canada have never been good to us on trade. They’ve treated us very unfairly on trade and we will be able to make that up very quickly because we don’t need the products that they have. We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber. We have more than almost anybody in those two categories, and oil we have more than anybody and we don’t need anybody’s trees.”