Canada gears up for battle over Trump's new car tariffs
Canada will soon respond to the new American tariffs on cars, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday. He added that a special government meeting on this matter will be held on Thursday.
- We will defend our workers. We will defend our companies. We will defend our country—and we will defend it together - emphasized Carney, who commented on Trump's decision about the tariffs after leaving a meeting with the president of the Unifor union, Lana Payne.
Canada prepares a response to Trump
He considered the tariffs a direct attack on Canadian workers and announced that Canada will soon respond to the American tariffs on cars imported to the U.S.
We have options. We can introduce retaliatory tariffs- said Carney. He did not provide details.
Canada announced at the beginning of March that it would impose tariffs of 25% on imports from the U.S. with a total value of CAD 155 billion.
Carney added that Canadians have been observing the actions of the U.S. for many months, which he described as a betrayal in relations and emphasized that Canada must "look out for (itself)." He reminded that the Canadian government committed to using all funds obtained from retaliatory tariffs imposed on imports from the U.S. to support Canadian company workers.
New U.S. tariffs
Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that on April 2, a 25% tariff will be imposed on all cars and light trucks imported from abroad.
The previous rate was 2.5%. Cars imported to the U.S. under CUSMA, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, will be subject to tariffs only on the "non-American components," according to public broadcaster CBC.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford called for retaliatory tariffs that "inflict as much pain as possible to the American people without inflicting pain on the Canadian population." The Canadian automotive industry is located in Ontario.
According to data from the Tradeimex portal, Mexico is the largest exporter of cars to the U.S., accounting for nearly 25% of cars imported there, and like Canada (13%), has factories of American automotive manufacturers on its territory. Following are Japan (18.6%) and South Korea (17.3%). Among European countries, the biggest exporters are Germany, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Italy, and Sweden.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday that the EU will assess Donald Trump's Wednesday announcement of imposing a 25% tariff on all cars imported from abroad. - As I have said before, tariffs are taxes – bad for businesses, worse for consumers - she assessed.
