An itemised bill

Drop the
Trade War

Somebody is paying for this. It is worth knowing exactly who, because it is almost certainly not who you were told.

See the bill ↓

Start here

Canada does not pay the tariff.

This is the part that gets lost, so it is worth being precise about it.

A tariff is not a penalty charged to a foreign government. It is a tax collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection from the American company that imports the goods — paid at the American border, in American dollars, by an American business.

That company then has three options. Raise its prices. Absorb the cost and cut its margin. Or cut its costs, which usually means its people.

Every one of those three lands on Americans.

You can disagree about whether that trade-off is worth it. That is a fair argument to have. But it should be had honestly — as a tax on your own side, not a bill sent to somebody else's.

Who is writing this

Canadians. Your neighbours and your allies.

Also, on the numbers below, the customer that buys more from the United States than China, the United Kingdom and Germany combined.

This is not a threat and it is not a gloat. There is no leverage here we have any interest in using, and nothing about this that we are enjoying. But the arithmetic keeps getting reported backwards — and it is our arithmetic too — so here it is, plainly.

The numbers

What actually crosses the border.

Goods trade between the United States and Canada, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. goods exports to Canada, 2025$333.6B
U.S. goods imports from Canada, 2025$381.9B
Two-way goods trade, 2025$715.5B
Crossing the border, per day$1.96B
States whose largest export market is Canada27
States where Canada is a top-three market45

None of that is a boast. Every one of those numbers is somebody’s job, on both sides of a border that has never once needed defending.

Trade values: U.S. Census Bureau, Trade in Goods with Canada, calendar year 2025. Per-day figure is two-way goods trade divided by 365. State rankings computed from Census state export data for the same year, counting individual destination countries only (trade-bloc aggregates excluded). Goods only — services trade is additional.

The ask

Four minutes, one phone call.

Congressional offices tally constituent calls by issue and pass the counts upward. On a quiet issue, a handful of calls genuinely registers. You will speak to a staffer, not a politician.

  1. Call the Capitol switchboard

    (202) 224-3121 — ask for your Representative or one of your Senators.

  2. Give your ZIP code

    That is what gets you logged as a constituent. It is the part that makes the call count.

  3. Say the quiet part

    "I'd like the tariffs on Canada dropped. They're a tax on American businesses and I'm the one paying for it."

Find your Representative Find your Senators

Pass it on

Send this to someone who votes.

None of this does anything sitting here. If a number above surprised you, it will surprise somebody else.

The other half

This is the arithmetic. There is also the friendship.

A companion site makes the case the way a neighbour would, rather than the way an accountant would.

maketradenotwar.com →