BBC News
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said an old Canadian relationship with the United States, “based on deepening the integration of our economies and narrow safety and military cooperation.”
In an interview with reporters in Ottawa after the cabinet meeting, Carney said that Canadians must “basically reconsider our economy” despite US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
He said Canada would respond with the retaliation of the tariff, which will have a “maximum impact” on the US.
Trump announced on Wednesday that he would target imported vehicles and parts of a 25%tax vehicle, saying, “This is permanent.”
Carney, the leader of the Liberal Party, called the original Canada-US car car agreement, signed in 1965 by the most important agreement in his life.
“That ended with those tariffs,” he said in France.
He continued that Canada could maintain an auto industry with US tariffs provided the work of the Government and the Business Community to “reconsider” and “remodeling” the industry.
Canada has to build an economy that Canadians can control, he said, and that would include reviewing a trade relationship with other partners.
It remains to be seen whether the Canadians can have a strong trade relationship with the United States going forward, he added.
Carney transferred his campaign plans ahead of the general elections next month to face the latest import duties.
The US has been partially imposed on 25% of the Canadian goods, along with 25% of the customs on all the imports of aluminum and steel. Canada has so far revealed around $ 60 billion ($ 42 billion; £ 32 billion) tariffs on US goods.
The new car tariffs will enter into force on April 2, with charges for companies importing vehicles starting the next day, the White House said. Part taxes are set to start in May or later.
Early on Thursday morning, Trump warned Canada and the EU to join in relation to the United States in the trade war.
“If the European Union cooperates with Canada to cause the US economic damage to the United States, the big tariffs, far greater than it is currently planned, will be placed on both of them,” he announced on his social platform of truth.
Carney met his ministers in Ottawa on Thursday morning to “talk about trade capabilities.” He was originally scheduled for a campaign in Quebec.
During his press conference, he said that President Trump had sent him a call last night and that this would happen in the “next or two”.
If that happens, this would be the first call of the two heads of the state.
Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservatives, the main opposition party, called the tariff “unjustified and unprotected”.
The NDP, a left-wing party that has previously helped raise the minority liberal government of former PM Justin Trudeauu, also changed its campaign plans on Thursday.
Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, spent his day meet with union leaders and car workers in Windsor, Ontario, an automatic car production center across from Detroit in Michigan.
He said that the US tariffs were “betrayal” against a close ally, saying that “Donald Trump began an illegal trade war with Canada” for “absolutely no reason.”
He said that any car company that moves their business from Canada due to tariffs should be blocked from car sale in the country.
Canadians go to the polls on April 28.
The USA have introduced about eight million cars last year – which made up about $ 240 billion in the store and about half of the total sales.
Earlier this month, after becoming a liberal leader even before he swore as a prime minister, Carney gave a speech about a victory in which he broke through the US president.
“The person who worships on the altar of Donald Trump will kneel before him, not to confront him,” he said, as he attacked his chief rival, Poilievre.
Mexico is the best car supplier in the US, followed by South Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, at a press conference on Thursday morning, refused to comment directly with new car tariffs.
She vowed that her government would “always defend Mexico” and fight to maintain new jobs and the protection of Mexican companies affected by import tax.
She said that Mexico would give a “integral response” to Trump’s administration tariffs on April 3, the day after many needed to take effect.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly noted that many American car companies have both Mexico and Canada, which are related to the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump himself negotiated during his first term in the White House.
“Of course, there should be no tariff,” she said on Thursday. “It’s the essence of a free trade agreement.”
