OTTAWA: Canada will wait until next week to strike back against the latest US threat of tariffs and nothing is off the table regarding possible countermeasures, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday (Mar 27).
Carney, warning Canadians that tough times lay ahead, also lamented what he said was the end of a long, mutually beneficial economic and security relationship with the United States.
“We will fight the US tariffs with retaliatory trade actions of our own that will have maximum impact in the United States and minimum impacts here in Canada,” he told a press conference.
A trade war would be extremely damaging for Canada, which sends 75 per cent of its exports to the United States.
Carney said he would speak to provincial premiers and business leaders on Friday to discuss a coordinated response to the auto sector tariffs that US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.
“It doesn’t make sense when there’s a series of US initiatives that are going to come in relatively rapid succession, to respond to each of them. We’re going to know a lot more in a week, and we will respond then,” he said.
“Nothing is off the table to defend our workers and our country,” said Carney. One option for Canada is to impose excise duties on exports of oil, potash and other commodities.
