Posted on 03/27/2025 6:44:31 PM PDT by Jyotishi
Toronto -- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday said that US President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs are a “direct attack” on his country and that the trade war is hurting Americans, noting that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low.
Trump said earlier on Wednesday that he was placing 25 per cent tariffs on auto imports and, to underscore his intention, he stated “This is permanent”.
“This is a very direct attack. We will defend our workers. We will defend our companies. We will defend our country,” Carney responded.
Mark Carney said he needs to see the details of Trump’s executive order before taking retaliatory measures.
Mark Carney also called the move unjustified and said he will leave the election campaign to go to Ottawa on Thursday to chair his special Cabinet committee on US relations.
Carney earlier announced a USD $1.4 billion “strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump’s tariffs.
Autos are Canada’s second largest export, and Carney noted it employs 125,000 Canadians directly and almost another 500,000 in related industries.
“Canada will be there for auto workers,” he said.
Trump previously granted a one-month exemption on his stiff new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada for US automakers.
The president has plunged the US into a global trade war all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty.
The Conference Board reported on Tuesday that its US consumer confidence index fell 7.2 points in March to 92.9, the fourth straight monthly decline and its lowest reading since January of 2021.
“His trade war is hurting American consumers and workers and it will hurt more. I see that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low,” Mark Carney said earlier while campaigning in Windsor, Ontario, ahead of Canada’s April 28 election.
The tax hike on auto imports starting April means automakers could face higher costs and lower sales.
Trump previously placed 25 per cent tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products as well as all of America’s trading partners on April 2.
“He wants to break us so America can own us. And it will never ever happen because we just don’t look out for ourselves we look out for each other,” Carney said.
Carney, a former two-time central banker, made the earlier comments while campaigning against the backdrop of the Ambassador Bridge, which is considered the busiest US-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25 per cent of all trade between the two countries.
It plays an especially important role in auto manufacturing.
Carney said the bridge carries USD 98 Billion in goods every year and USD 281 Million per day.
“Now those numbers and the jobs and the paychecks that depend on that are in question. The relationship between Canada and the United States has changed. We did not change it,” Carney said.
In the auto sector, parts can go back and forth across the Canada-US border several times before being fully assembled in Ontario or Michigan.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province has the bulk of Canada’s auto industry, said auto plants on both sides the border will shut simultaneously if the tariffs go ahead.
“President is calling it Liberation Day. I call it Termination Day for American workers. I know President Trump likes to tell people ‘You’re fired!’ I didn’t think he meant US auto workers when he said it,” Ford said.
Trump has declared a trade war on his northern neighbour and continues to call for Canada to become the 51st US state, a position that has infuriated Canadians.
Canadians booed Trump repeatedly at a Carney election rally in Kitchener, Ontario. The new prime minister, sworn in March 14, still hasn’t had a phone call with Trump. It is unusual for a US president and Canadian prime minister to go so long without talking after a new leader takes office. "It would be appropriate that the president and I speak given the action that he has taken. I'm sure that will happen soon," Carney said.
Yup, I can see this grandstanding for votes all the while the media uses subliminal headlines for the low IQ liberals who just scream for no reason for attention: “US/Canada At Economic War”, “US/Canada No Longer At Trust”, “US/Canada At Deep Odds”, etc.
Carney is a total Chicom crony.
Isn't the first time. Before he turned traitor, Benedict Arnold attacked Quebec in 1775, but was repelled. Maybe second time will be the charm.
At the rate the Cdn dollar is dropping, I think my annual vacation trip to the USA will be a coffee at Northport and a photo of the tallest tree between there and the border crossing.
Can’t wait!!!
LOL! Tariffs aren’t an “attack”. If they were then Canada has been “attacking” America for years with sky high tariffs on items like cheese and dairy products.
I see some of our northern neighbors are upset that president Trump is putting America first now. Trump’s tariffs will bring America back to the manufacturing powerhouse it is supposed to be. It won’t happen overnight but it will make a huge difference in the future of the country. I’m. Sure our competition isn’t happy. Trump is the only man with the vision and guts to do this. I am happy we have him again.
Why do so many chumps fall for this?
The tariffs Canada has on American dairy imports only kick in if America floods Canada with so much dairy products, a ludicrously high quota that TRUMP HIMSELF NEGOTIATED within the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2018. POTUS touted it touted as “the best trade deal ever made.”
And it was a great deal. Trump’s agreed quotas haven’t been breached. The USA would’ve had to double its dairy sales to Canada to ever cross the threshold.
And that’s why all dairy trade to Canada, currently, is still tariff free.
Rinse and repeat for dozens of other trade items where a tariff exists on paper but where the threshold was set so high, the USA was nowhere near ever having to pay it.
President Trump’s new tariffs are not reciprocal. If they were, they’d have a reasonable tariff-free trade quota. Tariffs that kick in on the first tonne of goods are not equivalent to tariffs that only kick in with the millionth tonne.
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