Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated Canada “will reply” if US President-elect Donald Trump imposes new tariffs on Canadian imports, and argued that retaliatory tariffs had been profitable when Trump put tariffs on Canadian metal and aluminum in 2018.
The feedback on Monday had been Trudeau’s strongest language but in signaling his authorities is getting ready retaliation if Trump follows by means of on his risk.
Following Trudeau’s remarks, Trump repeated his jab about Canada being like a US state in a submit on his social media website. Canadian officers have downplayed the quip as teasing since Trump made the joke throughout a meal with Trudeau at his Mar-a-Lago resort on November 29.
“It was a pleasure to have dinner the opposite night time with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Nice State of Canada,” Trump wrote on Fact Social. “I look ahead to seeing the Governor once more quickly in order that we might proceed our in depth talks on Tariffs and Commerce, the outcomes of which will likely be really spectacular for all!”
Days earlier than the dinner, Trump stated he would impose across-the-board 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports on the primary day of his presidency until each nations crack down on the stream of migrants and fentanyl into the US.
“Let’s not child ourselves in any means, form or type: 25% tariffs on every thing going to the USA can be devastating for the Canadian economic system,” stated Trudeau on Monday, talking to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. However he stated the tariffs would additionally increase prices on a variety of products the US will get from Canada.
Canada will “reply to unfair tariffs in quite a few methods, and we’re nonetheless wanting on the proper methods to reply, however our responses to the unfair metal and aluminum tariffs had been what ended up lifting these tariffs final time,” he stated.
Shortly after Trump introduced the tariffs on Canadian metal and aluminum within the spring of 2018, Canada rolled out retaliatory tariffs on focused, politically delicate gadgets resembling “bourbon and Harley Davidsons and enjoying playing cards and Heinz ketchup,” Trudeau stated.
The tariffs had been “politically impactful to the president’s occasion and colleagues,” and that was how “we had been capable of punch again in a means that was really felt by People,” Trudeau stated.
Canadian officers have pressured that Canada can also be an enormous marketplace for American companies. “We’re the largest buyer by far of US exporters,” stated Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the US, in a Bloomberg TV interview final week. She stated 36 US states depend Canada as their largest export market.
The Canadian prime minister cautioned that Trump needs to be taken significantly when he threatens to impose tariffs, however stated historical past has proven Trump can produce other motivations as effectively. “His strategy will typically be to problem folks, to destabilize a negotiating companion, to supply uncertainty and even generally a little bit of chaos into the well-established hallways of democracies and establishments,” Trudeau stated.
“One of the vital necessary issues for us to do is to not freak out, to not panic,” Trudeau stated, arguing Canada will want a considerate and united strategy to succeed in an settlement with Trump and keep away from harming each economies.
Nonetheless, he stated managing the commerce file is more likely to be tougher in Trump’s second time period, regardless of the very fact Canada, Mexico and the US renegotiated the complete North American free commerce pact in 2018.
“This time’s going to be completely different, it’s going to be somewhat tougher,” Trudeau stated. Trump and his inside circle are coming in with a a lot “clearer set of concepts of what they wish to do instantly than they’d final time,” he stated.
However he stated he believes Canada can once more discover a “win-win” answer that works for residents and companies on each side of the border.
