OTTAWA — The federal government will respond in an "equally unequivocal" way to any stacked U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods in the face of compounding threats from President Donald Trump, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday after meetings with European and NATO leaders, Trudeau acknowledged that Trump's multiple threats would represent a cumulative blow to Canada and the cross-border relationship.
But the prime minister vowed to reciprocate, asserted Canada's sovereignty against Trump's ongoing 51st state musings, and pushed back on Trump's rhetoric painting Canada as a military spending free rider.
Trudeau said the U.S. and Canada should be working together to build prosperity and confront authoritarian regimes, but "if we have to take some time to put that on pause while we stand up for Canadian jobs, while we stand up unequivocally for Canadian sovereignty, we'll do that.
"It's not our choice. We don't want to be doing that, but we will, regardless of the level of tariffs that eventually the administration might move forward on, we will be equally unequivocal in our response."
Trump has warned that any country that tries to retaliate against his global import tariffs would face higher tariffs and escalating costs.
Asked how Ottawa would deal with a 50 per cent surcharge on Canadian steel and aluminum, and why Trump is escalating his rhetoric against Canada, Trudeau said, "Canada will respond as appropriate in a calibrated but extremely strong way, regardless of what the U.S. moves forward with. We don't want to be in a trade dispute."
Trump's 51st state talk is a "non-starter," Trudeau said, even as he insisted he did not ever think of it as a joke.
"It's never going to happen, but we have to take seriously what the president is saying and pull that into our thinking as we continue to stand up for Canada," Trudeau said.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc initially told Canadians those
comments were a "joke" after news broke that Trump had raised it with Trudeau and his team as they dined together in November at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Trudeau repeatedly dismissed the Trump comments in public, saying there is not a "snowball's chance in hell" Canada would be annexed by the U.S. — a comment he repeated in Brussels.
But last week,
as the Star first reported, Trudeau told a closed-door meeting of Canadian business leaders that Trump's desire to make Canada a 51st state was "a real thing" driven in part by wanting the U.S. to benefit from Canada's critical mineral reserves.
Trudeau said his government and provincial premiers will continue to lobby the Trump administration to show that tariffs "will all end up hurting Americans and Canadians."
www.theguardian.com
