Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday that Canada will fight U.S. tariffs with countermeasures.
The prime minister promised to act with purpose and force to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs and bring in support for impacted workers.
“In a crisis, it’s important to come together and it’s essential to act with purpose and with force,” Carney said, adding that Canada’s strategic sectors, like pharmaceuticals, lumber and semiconductors, are facing the U.S. potential threat.
Carney said that he will speak with provincial and territorial premiers Thursday morning and detailed countermeasures are expected to be announced then.
Canada escaped Trump’s reciprocal global tariffs, but a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made cars and light trucks will come into effect at midnight. Duties on several Canadian goods, including non-compliant CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) products, aluminum and steel, remain in place.
Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said on the social platform X that U.S. tariffs on Canada are “as clear as mud.”
“I can’t believe the whole world is trying to learn where their economies are headed by straining to see a stupid chart held by the President,” Kelly said.
According to a new survey by his organization, the widespread business disruption caused by U.S.-Canada tariffs is leading Canadian small business owners to shift their suppliers and investments to domestic and international markets other than the United States.
The survey found that a third of business owners have already shifted to suppliers or markets within Canada, 27 percent plan to increase their investment in Canada, and the other third intend to reduce efforts in the United States over the next six months.
Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association and a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations, said the auto tariff package will shut down the auto sector in the United States and Canada.
“Canadians sighing with relief for not being on this list should remember we still have border tariffs of 25 percent, auto tariffs of 25 percent and steel and aluminum tariffs of 25 percent. Like dodging a bullet into the path of a tank,” Volpe said on his X account.
Drew Dilkens, mayor of Windsor, the auto capital of Canada in the province of Ontario, said that with thousands and thousands of jobs at stake, he’s worried about how hard his city could be hit.
“It could be catastrophic,” said Dilkens in an interview with local media. “The economic fallout will stretch far beyond Windsor. It would ripple all the way through Ontario. It would ripple all the way through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.”
Calling Trump “an arsonist,” Canada’s New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh was quoted by local media as saying that the U.S. president is “setting fire to the economy, his own economy, and ours as well.”
