Canada joins others on auto strategy

OTTAWA • Canada will join Mexico and other European and Asian auto-producing countries this week to plot strategy ahead of the potential imposition of tariffs on vehicles and auto parts exported to the United States.

Japan and the EU organized the meeting for Tuesday in Geneva, where vice and deputy ministers from Canada, the EU, Japan and South Korea will gather to talk about the punishing levies threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump. A Canadian government official told The Canadian Press on Sunday that deputy international trade minister Timothy Sargent would attend the meeting on Canada’s behalf.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs under Section 232 of the decades-old U.S. Trade Expansion Act. The legislation allows the president, under certain circumstances, to impose duties recommended by his commerce secretary under the notion that the goods being imported are a threat to national security.

Just as it did after the U.S. imposed hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and other nations, the Trudeau government has said it would respond to auto tariffs with its own countermeasures.

The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association has warned that “dollar-for-dollar” retaliatory levies would have a much more significant effect on Canada’s auto sector than counter-tariffs on aluminum and steel.

Sargent was also scheduled to meet with World Trade Organization directorgeneral Roberto Azevedo Tuesday, according to the WTO’S website.