Why Teck’s Trail smelter may hold leverage against Donald Trump’s tariff threat – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – January 12, 2025)

https://vancouversun.com/

Canada can help its case countering incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs with germanium produced by Teck in Trail.

With a population of just over 8,000, the smelting and mining city of Trail may hold some leverage in helping Ottawa counter U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose steep tariffs on Canadian imports.

Trump this week doubled-down on his expansionist rhetoric, threatening to use “economic force” to annex Canada, and suggesting his administration would use military force to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal. “We don’t need anything they have,” Trump said Wednesday, referring to Canada during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s natural resources minister, said Trump’s remarks were “simply false.” In a recent interview with BNN Bloomberg, Wilkinson mentioned Trail — where Teck Resources produces the critical mineral germanium, which is used in manufacturing electronics and fibre optics — as an example of how Canada and the U.S. could advance mutual interests rather than descend into a trade war.

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