President Donald Trump and his economic team are increasingly focusing on the revenues his tariffs would generate as he seeks to get tax cuts through Congress, pointing to an ominous path ahead for countries trying to avoid a trade war.

McKercher said the language used by Trump in his tariff directive “gives the game away.” Essentially, by proposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods, except energy which was set at 10 per cent, Trump is revealing the country’s dependency on cheap Canadian energy and a concern about prices rising too high for Americans.