Canada Global(Web News)Canadian automakers will be exempt from Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to rattle North American industry with hefty import duties. Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced Tuesday that auto manufacturers will be allowed to import a certain number of vehicles assembled from the United States – which comply with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on trade.
The number of vehicles a company is allowed to import tariff-free will decrease if Canadian production or investment declines.
The North American automobile sector is the most integrated industrial manufacturing sector in the world, especially Canada, the U.S. auto sector minister said Tuesday, and so President Trump’s tariffs are an attempt to isolate some of that integration and the benefits of that integration.
Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on all vehicle imports into the United States on April 3 but ordered a partial cut for vehicles made under the continental trade agreement, known as CUSMA. In response, Ottawa imposed similar tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles going to Canada.
Duties on auto parts imports into the U.S. were set to take effect after May 3. Carney said he was not sure the tariffs would go ahead now. The Liberal leader said he was in touch with automaker CEOs in Canada and around the world.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilier said at a campaign stop in Montreal early Tuesday that Trump has nothing but condemnation for unfairly targeting Canada.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said at a separate campaign stop in Montreal that Canada needs to fight to remove Trump’s tariffs and “make sure we can strengthen our automobile sector.”
