Prime Minister Mark Carney called the tariffs a ‘direct attack’ on Canadian workers and promised to attempt to speak directly to Trump ‘soon’
Prime Minister Mark Carney called the tariffs a ‘direct attack’ on Canadian workers and promised to attempt to speak directly to Trump ‘soon’
The new tariffs will be effective April 2, the same day the White House was scheduled to announce reciprocal tariffs
OTTAWA — Canadian federal and provincial leaders roundly condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all auto imports, including from Canada, and promised a full-throated response to the April 2 levy.
During a brief press conference Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the tariffs were a “direct attack” on Canadian workers and promised to reach out to speak directly to Trump “soon.”
Carney had said he would only speak to Trump when the president stopped denigrating Canada publicly.
“This will hurt us,” Carney said. “We will defend our workers. We will defend our companies. We will defend our country, and we will defend it together.”
Wednesday afternoon, Trump signed an executive order to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all vehicle imports as of April 2, including those made in Canada.
A “fact sheet” released by the White House says the tariff will be applied to all imported cars and light trucks and “key” auto parts, specifically engines, transmissions, powertrain parts and electrical components.
Vehicles imported under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) free trade deal will only be tariffed on the value of components built outside the U.S.
Trump said the goal of the new tariffs is to push automakers to move vehicle and part production from other countries, including Canada and Mexico, to the U.S.
“Before I was elected, we were losing all of our (auto) plants. They were being built in Mexico and in Canada,” Trump told reporters before he signed the order.
“They’re going to move their parts divisions back to the United States, because some of them were made in Canada and some of them were made in Mexico and other places,” he said.
When asked if there was a scenario in which the tariffs would be removed, Trump said no: “This is permanent, one hundred per cent.”
The head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) in Canada said Trump’s decision was not based on facts.
“China could only dream of damaging the American auto industry so quickly and so decisively as what Trump is threatening to do here again,” APMA president Flavio Volpe wrote on social media.
Trump’s announcement threw a ton of bricks on the first week of the federal election campaign, forcing party leaders to change travel plans and rewrite their communications plans on the fly.
Carney cancelled a planned campaign stop in Quebec City Wednesday evening to travel to Ottawa for a meeting of the federal cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations. He said the committee would discuss “trade options” in response to the new tariffs.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also scrambled to respond to Trump’s announcement, which they condemned unequivocally.
April 2 is also when the White House is scheduled to announce reciprocal tariffs that would match trade barriers levied by other countries. Trump said Wednesday that the lumber and pharmaceutical industries would be targeted in that round of levies.
Tariffs on softwood lumber would be another direct blow to Canada, particularly Quebec and British Columbia.
The president repeatedly referred to April 2 as “liberation day” for the U.S.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford countered to reporters Wednesday that it will more likely be coined “termination day” in reference to American workers he said would lose their jobs because of the tariffs. He pledged to push Carney to target U.S.-made vehicles in response.
He also suggested the sudden announcement by Trump was a “channel-changer” from the ongoing scandal surrounding his top advisers’ use of a Signal messaging group — which erroneously included a journalist — to share sensitive details about a military operation in Yemen.
“We’ll hit them as hard as we can,” Ford said of the U.S.
During a campaign stop in Windsor, Ont., Wednesday morning, Carney made a series of promises to protect automobile industry workers from eventual U.S. tariffs. That includes creating a $2 billion “strategic response fund” as well as an “all-in-Canada” network that would increase auto parts production in the country.
“President Trump’s trade war has put the kinship that exists between our great nations under greater strain than at any time in our storied histories. This trade war is hurting and will hurt more American consumers and workers,” Carney said.
At a campaign stop in Montmagny, Que., Poilievre said his message to Trump on the potential auto tariffs is “knock it off.”
“These tariffs are simply causing chaos in markets. They’re dislocating workers on both sides of the border. Stop threatening Canada with tariffs, stop talking about our sovereignty,” said Poilievre, who promised that Canada would retaliate in the face of more tariffs.
Poilievre also said that he had sold all his investments in the United States due to the tariff threats.
“When President Trump began threatening our economy I sold my investments in foreign economies and now invest in Canadian stocks and Canadian companies. I brought my money home to this country.”
More to come.
National Post
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