Article content

U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial 20 per cent tax on imports from Mexico to pay for a border wall would come as a second gift in less than a week for Canada’s oilpatch.

The tax, which White House press secretary Sean Spicer characterized as “theoretical,” would apply to countries “like Mexico,” with which the U.S. has a trade deficit, he said in a briefing Thursday. That would seemingly exempt Canada. The U.S. ran a surplus of $11.9 billion with the northern neighbour in 2015.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Trump’s threatened 20% Mexico import tax may benefit oilpatch Back to video

This would potentially be a boon for Canadian oilsands producers whose heavy crude competes with Mexican supplies in the U.S. refining market. The proposed tax comes three days after Trump revived TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline to ship crude from Western Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Trump’s proposal “would attract more Canadian crude because it would be cheaper,” Bart Melek, head of global commodity strategy at TD Securities in Toronto, said. “It just makes Mexican oil more expensive by 20 per cent, so it gives Canada a comparative advantage.”