Canada’s premiers travelled to Washington, D.C. to negotiate with Republican senators, lawmakers and business groups in the hopes of persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to rescind his pledge to impose crippling tariffs on Canadian imports.
The trip marked the first time that all 13 premiers travelled to the U.S. capital simultaneously in what Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew called a “charm offensive.”
“The purpose of the trip here is not for us to come down and try to issue ultimatums and things like that,” Kinew told reporters Wednesday. “The purpose of the trip here is diplomacy. It’s the warm and hardy handshake, making the case that the Canadian-American friendship has been the best in the world for decades.”
Trump signed executive orders to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. Monday “without exceptions or exemptions” starting March 12.
The U.S. president previously threatened 25-per-cent across-the-board tariffs on all Canadian imports slated for March 4, with the exception of energy, which earns a 10-per-cent carve-out.
When asked what a successful negotiation in Washington might look like, Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded by saying “zero tariffs.”
“What success looks like is zero tariffs. We’re their largest trading partner and their number one customer. I’m not too sure they fully understand the impact on both countries, on both sides of the border,” said Ford, who also serves as chair of Council of the Federation.
“Inflation will happen, interest rates will go up. Plants will be closed on both sides of the border and the more we communicate, the better it is. We’re down here to listen to our U.S. colleagues. We have to make sure that we communicate how important it is to be stronger together. It’s absolutely essential.”
Ford went on to say that in speaking with people in the U.S., including politicians and business leaders, “they all get it,” referring to the damaging nature such tariffs would have.
“So we have to make sure that gets communicated up to President Trump,” he said.
On this issue of supply management for Canada’s dairy industry, Quebec Premier François Legault said emphatically that any changes to the existing agreement were “not negotiable.”
“In Quebec we are against changing the management of the offer. The reason why we have that is to protect our regions. We don’t give subsidies to milk producers, the only thing we do is manage the offer and it’s a way to protect small farms in all the regions,” said Legault. “So for us, it’s not negotiable.”
The Trump administration confirmed that if both rounds of tariffs are implemented, they would be in addition to the duties, meaning a tariff of up to 50 per cent on all Canadian steel and aluminum exported south of the border.
Trump also threatened levying as much as a 100-per-cent tariff on Canada’s auto sector, in addition to the 25-per-cent tariffs now on hold.
“If you look at Canada, Canada has a very big car industry. They stole it from us. They stole it because our people were asleep at the wheel,” said Trump during an interview with Fox News on Monday.
“If we don’t make a deal with Canada, we’re going to put a big tariff on cars. Could be a 50 or 100 per cent because we don’t want their cars. We want to make the cars in Detroit.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith exhibited the most optimism from Wednesday’s negotiations, telling reporters that she thinks Canada’s approach of “diplomacy is working.”
“I think that the fact that we got a 30-day reprieve was because we agreed to work on the cross-border problem of fentanyl,” said Smith. “What I’ve seen from this president is he’s prepared to make a deal.”
She also highlighted the importance of Canada holding a federal election as soon as possible so that it can bring a fresh mandate to the negotiating table.
“I think we can make a deal on steel and aluminum by making very much the same argument that I’ve been making on energy and critical minerals. We’ve won the argument that those raw materials are essential to American success.”