Trudeau meets with Canadian provincial leaders to plan Trump tariffs | International trade news
Montreal, Canada – Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with provincial leaders to discuss threatening tariffs that United States President-elect Donald Trump said he would impose tariffs on Canadian goods on his first day in office next week.
In social media publish on Wednesday, Trudeau said, “None of us want to see tariffs erode the successful partnership between Canada and the United States.”
“But we will be ready with a strong, national response if we need it.”
Trump threatened to introduce tariffs of 25 percent about Canada and Mexico shortly after he won the US presidential election in November.
On his Truth Social website, Trump warned that the measures would take effect “on January 20, as one of my many first executive orders” if Canada and Mexico do not stop illegal migration and drug trafficking across their borders into the US.
The Republican leader’s warning has raised concerns among Canadian political and business leaders as his inauguration nears, with provincial premiers urging Trudeau to do whatever it takes to prevent the tariffs from taking effect.
I’m meeting with the prime ministers in Ottawa today. None of us want to see tariffs destroy the successful partnership between Canada and the United States. But we will be ready with a strong, national response if we need it.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 15, 2025
One of Trudeau’s main allies, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, stepped down in late December amid what she said was disagreement over how the Canadian government should respond to potential tariffs.
“We must take this threat extremely seriously,” Freeland wrote in her resignation letter.
The US and Canada are among each other’s largest trading partners, and the two countries have traded $2.7 billion (C$3.6 billion) a day in goods and services across their shared border in 2023, according to Canadian government data.
Since Trump threatened tariffs, Trudeau — who is resigning as prime minister after his Liberal Party elects a new leader in early March — emphasized the need for dialogue to maintain strong Canadian-American ties.
He also said earlier that the Canadian government would “respond to unfair tariffs in a number of ways,” without specifying what specific measures might be taken.
Canadian broadcaster CBC News reported last week that a document circulating among senior officials in Ottawa lists hundreds of US-made goods that Canada could hit with retaliatory tariffs.
The list includes U.S. steel products, plastics and Florida orange juice, the CBC reported.
In a meeting with Trudeau on Wednesday, some premiers, including Ontario’s Doug Ford, offered support for the prospect of retaliation.
“I’m a firm believer in retaliatory tariffs,” said Ford, the leader of the Conservative Party. “You can’t let someone hit you over the head with a sledgehammer without hitting them back twice as hard, in my opinion.”
Ford arrived at the roundtable with his own version of Trump’s trademark “Make America Great Again” hat: a blue cap emblazoned with the words “Canada Not for Sale.”
“We are entering these negotiations from a position of strength, with as much leverage as possible,” Ford said from his seat next to Trudeau.
He also had a message for the USA: “We are not the enemy. We are your closest ally. We are your closest friends.”
Industry groups in Canada are also bracing for Trump’s tariffs and the economic disruption they could cause.
On Wednesday, the Canadian trade union Unifor issued a public statement letter to the Trudeau administration outlining steps the country could take in the face of Trump’s proposed tariffs.
They included imposing retaliatory tariffs “immediately” as well as emergency aid to industries threatened with layoffs as a result of any trade war.
“Never in modern history has Canada faced such a rebuke from its largest trading partner and closest ally,” union president Lana Payne said of Trump’s tariff statements.
“The threat to the livelihoods of Canadian workers – including tens of thousands of Unifor members in trade-exposed sectors – has crossed a dangerous line. This cannot be tolerated.”
Trudeau’s government has engaged in heated diplomacy with Trump’s incoming administration since the threat of tariffs was issued.
The prime minister himself traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in November, and several ministers also traveled in an attempt to ease economic tensions.
Just this week, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson traveled to Washington, DC, to propose a stronger energy alliance with the US, which imports millions of barrels of Canadian oil every day.
But as Trudeau tried to muster a “Team Canada” approach to Trump’s economic gun-rattling, some Canadian prime ministers met separately with the US president-elect, fueling fears of fractures in the united front.
Premier Danielle Smith of Alberta, for example, traveled alone to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.
Posting pictures of her trip on social media, she wrote“On behalf of Albertans, I will continue to engage in constructive dialogue and diplomacy with the incoming administration and elected federal and state officials of both parties.”
