Trade fight with U.S. escalates
Ottawa details list of U.S. tariff targets, offers up to $2B in support
OTTAWA — The Trudeau government intensified Friday its trade fight with U.S. President Donald Trump, posting an extensive final hit list of $16.6 billion worth of American imports that will be slapped with retaliatory tariffs this weekend.
The federal government also released specifics of a financial aid package for industries caught in the crossfire, including up to $2 billion in fresh funding and support for workers in Canada’s steel, aluminum and manufacturing sectors.
Ottawa’s unprecedented reprisal against its closest ally comes in response to the Trump administration’s punishing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.
It begs the question: what comes next? There are preparations for the possibility of a drawn-out and escalating dispute.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled the details — including a finished list of the targeted U.S. products — during a news conference at a steel factory in Hamilton.
“Canada has no choice but to retaliate with a measured, perfectly reciprocal dollar-for-dollar response — and that is what we are doing,” Freeland said.
“They will take effect on July 1 and will remain in place until the United States eliminates its traderestrictive measures against Canada.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apparently reiterated that position to the president himself in a phone call on Friday.
A readout of the call released by the Prime Minister’s Office says Trudeau called Trump to express his condolences on a deadly shooting at a newspaper in Maryland this week — but the two leaders also discussed trade.
“As he has said in past conversations and in public, the prime minister conveyed that Canada has had no choice but to announce reciprocal countermeasures to the steel and aluminum tariffs that the United States imposed on June 1, 2018,” the readout stated.
“The two leaders agreed to stay in close touch on a way forward.”
Aside from tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the U.S., dozens of additional consumer goods will be subject to 10 per cent duties — from ketchup to lawn mowers and playing cards.
It’s all part of Ottawa’s plan to strike back at the U.S. in response to hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum — 25 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively — imposed last month by Trump.
Freeland called the legal pretext used by the U.S. to impose the duties — that Canada poses a national security threat — “not only absurd, it’s hurtful.”
“We are perfectly within our rights to respond,” said Freeland, who was joined at the announcement by Trudeau cabinet colleagues Patty Hajdu and Navdeep Bains.
There are fears, however, that Canadian tariffs — some of which target businesses in states that are important to Trump and his supporters — could lead to fresh trade action from the U.S.
Trump himself has already threatened to put tariffs on the automotive sector, which could prove far worse for the Canadian economy than the steel and aluminum duties.