Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned this Wednesday that 25% tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump wants to impose on his North American partners will destroy jobs in Canada and the US.
Trudeau met on Wednesday night with the heads of government of the country’s 11 provinces to outline a common strategy in the face of the tariffs with which Trump has threatened Canada and Mexico in retaliation for the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants to the United States. . Canada’s strategy so far is disassociate as much as possible from Mexico and emphasize that the northern border of the United States is secure to prevent Trump from making his threat a reality and imposing tariffs that economists warn will plunge the country into a recession.
The Office of the Prime Minister of Canada noted in a statement that during the meeting with the provinces, Trudeau “underlined that the number of migrants attempting to travel from Canada to the US is a fraction of those attempting to travel from Mexico to the United States.” The prime minister also pledged to work with provincial heads of government “to promote Canada as a safe and reliable trading partner, including in critical minerals, natural resources and energy.”
After the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, declared in a press conference that the meeting had been “very positive” and that all attendees agreed to work in a coordinated manner.
But the head of Government of the province of Ontario, the most industrial and which concentrates the automobile sector in the country, the conservative Doug Ford, accused Trudeau of being slow to react to the political situation in the United States. Ford recalled that he was the one requested to exclude Mexico of a trade agreement between Canada and the United States for “allowing it to become the back door for cheap Chinese goods.” “I am urging Canada to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement directly with the United States,” Ford insisted in a statement.
During the meeting, the Canadian government also asked the heads of provincial governments to “use all their contacts, communication channels and capabilities to convey important information and messages to Americans and people of influence.”
