President Trump is making good on his campaign promises to level the field on trade. However, speaking from the Oval Office yesterday afternoon, he suggested some countries could receive exemptions to his tariff plan, making his approach broader.
Tariffs against major trade partners are expected to go into effect on April 2nd, a week from tomorrow. Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, says they are prepared to return fire but need to proceed with caution.
“There is a limit to the extent we should match U.S. tariffs. My commitment, my government’s commitment, is that we will use all of the revenues from those tariffs to support Canadian workers who are affected by the U.S. trade actions, and we’ll see what happens on April 2nd. We’ll see what happens after that. And there’s a limit, there’s a limit to matching these tariffs dollar-for-dollar, given the fact that our economy is a tenth of the size of the United States.”
Carney says Canadian officials are now looking at providing their own version of economic assistance to help farmers hurt by trade issues, but no detailed plans have been drawn up yet.
