Escalating trade war between the US and Canada is more bad news for Minnesota farmers

Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish told Susie Jones that President Trump's policies are pushing many farmers to the brink financially. The spoke at the Minnesota State Fair Friday morning on the WCCO Morning News.

"In the eighties, we passed the Farmer Lender Mediation law within Minnesota," Wertish explains. "So, before a banker can foreclose on a farmer, he has to offer a mediation and the mediation is run through the Minnesota Extension Department and Department of Ag. And right now, up this year in 2026, we have more people (who) have filed for mediation than we had the last three years combined."

Wertish says it is crucial to Minnesota's farm economy to work with Canada, and specifically rely on Canada for potash, an essential potassium fertilizer used in major crops like corn and soybeans.

"The trade war now with Canada, it just makes absolutely no sense," Wertish adds. "Canada is Minnesota's number one trading partner. We export about $5.5 billion of stuff from Minnesota into Canada every year and obviously, sure, we import stuff back, but we're in a global market. We have to trade. We have to trade. That's just part of it."

The prospects for compromise between the two countries looked bleak this week, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reacting to new 50% U.S. tariffs on certain Canadian goods by responding in kind on about $20 billion worth of American imports, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment.

“You're at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,'' Carney, who came to power last year on the promise that he'd stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump, said over the weekend.

Doug Ford, Ontario’s populist premier, added that he was ready to escalate even further by cutting off his province’s shipments of electricity and critical minerals to the United States.

Soon after, Trump declared his intention to hammer the Canadian auto industry with another set of import taxes if the Canadians don’t “fall in line.’’

With the breakdown threatening to harm one of the world's largest trading relationships and clouding efforts to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term, experts cautioned that there's still time to pull back from the brink of an even bigger trade war.

They’ve done it before. “If there is political will, there is an off ramp,’’ said former U.S. trade negotiator Wendy Cutler.

Mr. Trump took things even further on Thursday, saying he is renaming Lake Ontario to be known as “Lake America” in the United States.