Speaking directly to U.S. President Donald Trump Canada’s Prime Minister said at a news conference Tuesday that implementing the tariffs “is a very dumb thing to do.”

Canada is immediately imposing 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of American products and will expand that to cover another $125 billion in U.S. goods in 21 days.

Justin Trudeau also spoke to the American people saying that Canada does not want a trade war but wants to work with America as a friend and ally. He also told U.S. residents that their government has chosen to do this to them.

“As of this morning markets are down, and inflation is set to rise dramatically all across your country. Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada or because of consumers in Canada, or both.”

Trudeau says that Canada will file claims with the World Trade Organization and through the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement.

“I think in what President Trump said yesterday that there is nothing Canada or Mexico can do to avoid these tariffs underlines very clearly what I think a lot of us have suspected for a long time that these tariffs are not specifically about fentanyl even though that is the legal justification he must use to actually move forward with these tariffs.”

Trudeau also suggested the federal government would support Canadians with things like making adjustments to employment insurance.