Ottawa:
US President Donald Trump’s latest move is a “direct attack” on Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday. Mr Carney was speaking about the latest tariffs imposed by President Trump, which the latter announced as a “permanent” measure.
Earlier in the day, Donald Trump brought into effect a massive 25 per cent tariff on all auto imports, including spare and ancillary components. “This tariff shall remain permanent”, President Trump said at the time of declaring it.
Reacting to this almost immediately, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “This is a very direct attack” on Canada. “We will defend our workers, we will defend our companies, and we will defend our country.” He however, did not announce any retaliatory measures.
“We need to see the details of Donald Trump’s executive order before responding to them,” he said. Prime Minister Carney also decided to cut short his election campaign to fly back to Ottawa immediately to chair a special meeting with the Cabinet committee on US relations to respond to this “unjustified” move by President Trump.
Prime Minister Carney has already announced a $2billion (Canadian dollar) “strategic response fund” in order to protect Canadians employed in the auto industry which will be severely hit by Trump’s decision. “Canada will protect its auto workers,” he said assuring hundreds of thousands of people who are faced with uncertainty.
The automobile industry is Canada’s second-largest industry in terms of exports. It employs more than 125,000 Canadians directly and over 500,000 more in allied industries.
Sharpening his attack on President Trump, Prime Minister Carney said that the president has plunged the US into a global trade war. He said Trump’s decisions are hurting Americans too – and hurting them bad. “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,” Mr Carney said.
On Tuesday, The Conference Board reported that 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. President Trump’s latest 25 per cent tax hike on auto imports starting April means automakers in the US will face higher costs, which may result in lower sales.
Donald Trump had already placed 25 per cent tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and has threatened sweeping tariffs on each and every Canadian product imported in the United States starting April 2.
“He wants to break us so America can own us,” Carney said. “And that will never ever happen,” Prime Minister Carney said, adding that “The relationship between Canada and the United States has changed. We did not change it.”
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 tell people ‘Your fired!” I didn’t think he meant US auto workers when he said it,” Mr Ford said.
Donald Trump is determined to annex Canada and make it the “51st State of the United States of America” – a stand that has infuriated Canadians far and wide. He has been calling the Canadian Prime Minister a “Governor”. The first time he did that with then PM Justin Trudeau, the world thought it was just a joke. But that has now become a strategic objective of US foreign policy, for “national security” reasons.
(Inputs from Associated Press)