Freeland warns U.S. Canada will oppose tariffs

Canada would be “strongly opposed” to any new tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S., Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday after meeting with her American counterpart in the Trump administration.

She also made a point, she said, to tell U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, and others, that while Canada would not yet take a position on a proposed “border adjustment tax,” Canada would “respond appropriately” if Washington imposed new tariffs.

“I had a very strong sense from everyone I spoke with of the appreciation of the strong relationship between Canada and the United States,” Freeland told Canadian reporters after a day of meetings in the U.S. capital.

Freeland said her conversations also dealt with “how integrated the economies are and how integrated our supply chains are.”

A tax plan proposed by Republicans would lower the corporate tax rate for U.S. companies from 35 per cent to 20 per cent. It would also impose a tax on imports from other countries, while encouraging exports of American goods — which some observers fear could harm Canada and its energy exports.

But Congress is full of diverging views, Freeland said.

“How (the tax plan) might work and what it might include, and whether tariffs might be a part of it, is very much all under discussion.

“I did make the point that Canada will have no position on the tax reform plan or the border adjustment tax idea until it is fully-formed and it is a concrete proposal. But I did make clear that we would be strongly opposed to any imposition of new tariffs between Canada and the United States, that we felt tariffs on exports would be mutually harmful.”

Freeland said some options were discussed to “make the border easier for trade,” including implementing a pre-clearance system for cargo.

On the potential renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, she said she has been meeting with stakeholders including the automotive industry and the softwood lumber industry to hear their concerns.

Freeland said she also emphasized Canada’s openness to receiving Muslim immigrants and refugees.

And in a “substantive” discussion with Tillerson on Russia and Ukraine, she conveyed Canada’s “strong view” that Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea was illegal “and a threat to the international order,” she said.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is to meet Thursday with senior economic advisers to Trump.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said in an interview with CNN Tuesday she believed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would visit Trump as soon as next week, and White House press secretary Sean Spicer hinted Wednesday he would have details on a Trudeau visit soon, but a timeline for any in-person meeting has not been confirmed.