Trudeau, Macron push against tariffs
Trade war ‘will solve nothing,’ Macron tells OECD
Canada and its European allies mounted a transatlantic counter offensive Wednesday to stop the Trump administration from imposing potentially punishing and disruptive tariffs on steel and aluminum later this week.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron made their cases separately to dissuade President Donald Trump from using a national-security clause in U.S. trade law to impose potentially crippling tariffs on Canada, Mexico and Europe, which were provisionally exempted from the duties when they were first imposed in March.
Those exemptions are due to expire Friday, and if they are not renewed, Trudeau said consumers in both Canada and the U.S. would be hurt. Macron echoed those concerns, and issued a broader warning against starting a trade war.
Trump’s two key economic cabinet members — trade czar Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — were in Paris on Wednesday to face nervous European Union counterparts and hear their concerns first hand.
Ross stared down the concerns by questioning the efficiency of the World Trade Organization and other large institutions: “We would operate within frameworks if we were convinced that people would move quickly.”
The steel standoff highlighted the rift over the rules-based international trade order that is likely to be on full display when Trudeau hosts the G7 leaders next week: a skeptical Trump on one side facing down the rest of the G7, including Trudeau.
Macron and Trudeau are to meet in Ottawa next week ahead of the G7 summit in Quebec to talk strategy.
Trudeau described Wednesday how he pushed U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence during a phone call a day earlier to exempt Canadian steel and aluminum imports to the U.S.
The prime minister said the government is dealing with the U.S. on multiple economic fronts, including trying to forge a deal on a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement.
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are pushing hard to get a deal on a renegotiated NAFTA before Congressional elections in the fall and what’s expected to be a turning-point election in Mexico on July 1.
Trudeau and his cabinet, as well as premiers and business leaders, have been mounting a full-court press on their American counterparts to prevent Trump from killing NAFTA.
Trudeau also spoke by phone Wednesday to the premiers of Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.
“They all agreed to continue to defend the Canadian steel and aluminum industry from unwarranted tariffs and to stand up for the best interests of all Canadian workers and businesses,” said a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Trudeau himself has made multiple overtures to find common ground and forge a personal connection with Trump.
Macron told the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris that “threats over trade war will solve nothing of the serious imbalances.”
In a dig at Trump, he said: “One can think about making voters happy by saying: ‘I have a victory, I’ll change the rules, you’ll see.’”
The EU has promised retaliation if the U.S. tariffs are imposed saying a range of American products from peanut butter to bourbon will