U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening “large scale” tariffs on Canada and the European Union after announcing a fresh round of tariffs on auto imports that will hit next week.
In a post early Thursday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!”
This new warning comes after Trump signed an executive order Wednesday for 25 per cent tariffs on all foreign-made cars and light trucks, in addition to tariffs already in place on those goods.
The auto tariffs are set to go into effect April 2.
The U.S. has so far imposed 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods, as well as an additional 25 per cent on steel and aluminum imports and a 10 per cent levy on Canadian energy imports.
Global “reciprocal” tariffs on all foreign imports, including from Canada, are also planned for April 2, which is when the auto tariffs are set to take effect.
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Canada has already responded to Trump’s trade actions with counter-tariffs on almost $60 billion worth of American goods, which were announced in retaliation for the 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods and a subsequent round that was retaliation for the steel and aluminum tariffs.
Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney had to press pause on his election campaign, returning to Ottawa Wednesday night for a cabinet meeting on Canada-U.S. relations Thursday. He was originally supposed to fly to Quebec City.
Carney and his cabinet ministers, who are also running for re-election as Liberal candidates in their respective ridings, retain caretaker responsibilities as the current prime minister and cabinet ministers.
Under the caretaker convention, Carney can still act in the prime ministerial capacity during an election campaign but is expected to restrain any actions to matters that are routine, non-controversial, reversible, agreed to by opposition parties or “urgent and in the public interest.”
Speaking at a campaign rally in Kitchener, Ont. Wednesday night, Carney said Trump’s auto tariffs are a “direct attack” on Canadian workers.
“Ties of kinship, ties of commerce, ties that are in the process of being broken,” he said. “This will hurt us but through this period by being together, we will emerge stronger.”
“We will take steps that are in the interests of Canadian workers,” Carney said, adding we’ll fight in a unified way.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the tariffs were “unjustified and unprovoked” and would hurt the U.S. economy. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called Trump’s tariffs a “full-frontal attack” on auto workers.
“This is a direct attack on our workers and we’ve got to fight back like hell. We’ve got to fight back with retaliatory tariffs,” Singh said.
— with files from Global News’ Sean Previl and Isaac Callan
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https://globalnews.ca/news/11100564/donald-trump-tariffs-canada-eu/
