Post by Lucretia BorgiaOddly enough I thought Fords reaction, for once, was perfect with the
baseball cap etc :)
From my local newspaper...
Trudeau says Canada will respond to US tariffs as Ontario's premier says
Trump 'declared war'
Canada’s outgoing prime minister and the leader of the country’s oil
rich province of Alberta are confident Canada can avoid the 25% tariffs
President Donald Trump says he will impose on Canada and Mexico on Feb.
1 by arguing that Canada is the energy super power that has the oil and
critical minerals that America needs to feed what Trump vows will be a
booming U.S. economy
By ROB GILLIES - Associated Press 21 hrs ago
TORONTO (AP) — Canada's outgoing prime minister and the leader of the
country's oil rich province of Alberta are both confident Canada can
avoid the 25% tariffs President Donald Trump says he will impose on Feb. 1.
Justin Trudeau and Danielle Smith will argue that Canada is the energy
super power that has the oil and critical minerals that America needs to
feed what Trump vows will be a booming U.S. economy.
But Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, the manufacturing hub of Canada,
said a trade war is 100% coming.
Trump "declared an economic war on Canada,” Ford said in an interview
with The Associated Press. “And we are going to use every tool in our
tool box to defend our economy.”
Trudeau said Canada will retaliate if needed but noted Canada has been
here before during the first Trump presidency when they successfully
renegotiated the free trade deal.
Ford said as soon as Trump applies tariffs he will instruct Ontario’s
liquor control board to pull all American-made alcohol from shelves.
“We are the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world. And I'm going to
encourage all the premiers to do the exact same,” Ford said, adding
there will be a dollar-for-dollar tariff retaliation on American goods
entering Canada.
“We are going to target Republican held areas as well. They are going to
feel the pain. Canadians are going to feel the pain, but Americans will
feel the pain as well," he said. “A message to the countries around the
world: if he wants to use Canada as an example you are up next. He’s
coming after you as well."
Trump pledged in his inaugural address that tariffs would be coming in a
speech in which he promised a golden era for America. He later said
Canada and Mexico could be hit with the tariffs as soon as Feb. 1,
though he signed an executive order requesting a report coordinated by
the Secretary of Commerce by April. 1.
About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada. Despite Trump’s
claim that the U.S doesn’t need Canada, nearly a quarter of the oil
America consumes per day comes from Canada. America’s northern neighbor
also has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for
and is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium
to the U.S.
Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and
services cross the border each day. Canada is the top export destination
for 36 U.S. states.
“Trump wants to usher in a golden age for the U.S,” Trudeau said at a
Cabinet retreat in Quebec called to deal with Trump's threats.
“If the American economy is going to see the boom that Donald Trump is
predicting they are going to need more energy, more steel and aluminum,
more critical minerals, more of the things that Canada sells to the
United States every single day.”
On Tuesday, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum stressed the need to keep
“cool heads” and look at the wording of what Trump signed, rather than
listen to the discourse surrounding it.
On the threat of tariffs, Sheinbaum took solace in that the “ America
First Trade Policy ” order that Trump signed Monday talks about the free
trade agreement signed with Mexico and Canada during Trump’s first term,
which lays out clear processes for disputes. She noted that a formal
revision of the agreement is scheduled for July 2026.
“Right now, what President Donald Trump signed is that the commercial
treaty continues,” Sheinbaum said when asked if Mexico was still open to
retaliating with its own tariffs at her daily press briefing.
Smith, the premier of Canada's oil rich province of Alberta, said the
April 1 deadline gives Canadians time to make case to the Trump
administration that Canada should be exempted from tariffs.
“With the energy emergency that they declared and with their desire for
critical minerals Canada is the answer,” Smith told The AP. Canada can
get a “total carve out" from the tariffs, she said.
Smith noted Canada is the world's biggest supplier of uranium and an
important source of critical minerals that the U.S. is desperate for.
She said both Canadians and Americans would be harmed by a trade war but
said Canadians can't afford it in particular.
“We have to be realistic. We are talking about a $21 trillion economy
and the amount of product that we sell into the United States is
somewhere in the order of $300 billion," Smith said.
"We don’t have the same kind of market power that they do as an economy.
We are one 10th their size. We have to be realistic about what a trade
and tariff war looks like. We would be more harmed by that than them."
Smith said Americans in some states could pay more than a dollar per
gallon more for gas.
“Americans will pay more in the states that are reliant on Canadian
goods and Canadians will just pay more in return,” Smith said. “We could
spend the next four years fighting over that or we can spend the next
four years building pipeline access and making sure that we develop
critical minerals for our joint benefit. I’d rather have the second
conversation.”
Associated Press writer María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this
report.