OTTAWA — International Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly will press Canada’s case in opposition to damaging tariffs with the brand new U.S.
OTTAWA — International Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly will press Canada’s case in opposition to damaging tariffs with the brand new U.S. secretary of state in Washington subsequent week, after Trump repeated a requirement Thursday for allies to vastly enhance their navy spending.
Trump is threatening to impose 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada beginning on Feb. 1. Joly stated issues are nonetheless in flux as a result of Trump hasn’t confirmed his new commerce secretary.
“There can be a lot of rhetoric,” Joly advised reporters on Parliament Hill on Thursday.
“We are going to hear lots of completely different variations coming from south of the border. We have to put our head down, we must be united and we have to defend Canadian jobs.”
Joly spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for half an hour by cellphone Wednesday and can meet with him in particular person subsequent week. She stated Rubio is a “good interlocutor” and she or he’s had “constructive” discussions with him, together with once they met final December earlier than his formal affirmation.
“He understands that not solely this can have an effect on People, however this can have an effect on how the U.S. engages on the planet, and that may have an effect geopolitically,” she stated in reference to the tariff risk.
“I additionally talked in regards to the significance of standing up in opposition to China collectively. And Rubio himself has been very hawkish in opposition to China.”
Joly stated she’s going to meet with “different key Republican senators” throughout her fifth go to to the U.S. since final November’s presidential election. She stated Canada will take part in Trump’s deliberate assessment of buying and selling practices.
She known as for unity on Canada’s commerce technique. The premiers of Alberta, Quebec and Saskatchewan have pushed again on Ottawa for floating the thought of imposing dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs and slicing off power exports.
“Alberta jobs are essential as Ontario jobs, as Quebec jobs. It is not a contest,” Joly stated.
“We will all work collectively to be sure that, in the end, we face collectively this existential risk in opposition to our economic system.”
Additionally on Thursday, Trump repeated his earlier requires NATO navy allies like Canada to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence — a goal that no NATO nation at the moment meets.
In his speech to the World Financial Discussion board assembly in Davos, Trump additionally lamented the USA’ “large deficit with Canada” in commerce.
“Canada has been very powerful to take care of through the years, and it is not truthful,” he stated, including that the U.S. does not want Canadian commodities.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded by citing Ottawa’s deliberate will increase to navy spending and stated Canada is a associate to the U.S. in an unstable world.
He stated Trump’s imaginative and prescient for an financial growth within the U.S. would require “extra of the issues that Canada is already sending” it, resembling power, minerals and lumber — all of which Ottawa might block or make costlier in response to U.S. tariffs.
“Canada may have a robust, strong response, as a result of we don’t need this, however we are going to reply if essential,” Trudeau stated.
He stated the purpose of Canada’s tariff technique is “not to determine handle these tariffs and reside with them over the long run, however to determine get them eliminated as shortly as doable.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 23, 2025.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
