India, March 5 -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused US President Donald Trump of trying to engineer a "total collapse" of Canada's economy so as to make it "easier" for America to "annex" it.

He made that accusation as a North American trade war erupted on Tuesday with Trudeau announcing 25% retaliatory tariffs on CA$ 30 billion (about US$ 20.69 billion) worth of American imports immediately. They went in effect as did the United States' 25% tariffs on Canadian exports other than energy which is being tariffed at 10%.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday morning, "Today the US launched a trade war against Canada," adding that Ottawa was not going to back down.

Trudeau said the tariffs will remain in place until the US tari...