Canadian ambassador warns of 'tit-for-tat' retaliation to US tariffs

By Thomas Seal

 

US President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff plans will lead to “tit for tat” retaliation from Canada, according to the country’s ambassador in Washington.

 

Trump has threatened 25 per cent tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico unless they address his complaints on border security. He has escalated his rhetoric recently, claiming the US doesn’t need anything from Canada and suggesting the country should be the 51st US state.

 

But taxing and spurning Canadian products would be costly to the US economy and require American companies to turn to suppliers like China and Russia, Ambassador Kirsten Hillman told Bloomberg Television on Monday.

 

“With the greatest of respect to President Trump, there may be other ways in which to fill those needs, but they will be more expensive, less reliable, and they will lead, as I say, to a bit of a tit-for-tat, when really what we should be doing is working together.”

 

Hillman declined to say whether tariffs from Canada would be dollar-for-dollar, adding: “The last thing we want to do is escalate.”

 

Canada is drawing up plans for extensive tariffs against US products if Trump applies 25 per cent levies on Canadian goods, Bloomberg reported last week, potentially going far beyond the targeted list of counter-tariffs it employed on goods like bourbon whiskey and washing machines during a 2018 trade dispute. 

 

Trump’s incoming team, meanwhile, is discussing a gradual ratcheting up of tariffs to apply negotiating leverage while avoiding a spike in inflation, Bloomberg reported earlier on Monday, adding that the early-stage proposal has yet to be presented to the President-elect. 

 

On Trump’s comments regarding the US border with Canada being nothing but an “artificially-drawn line,” Hillman said: “There has been a change in the tenor of the president’s comments — a change that I think Canadians have really noticed, and not always really appreciated.”

 

The US had a $40.6 billion trade deficit in goods and services with Canada in 2023, mainly because it imports huge amounts of Canadian oil and gas. Trump says the US “subsidizes” its northern neighbour.