Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has responded to US President Donald Trump’s latest order imposing 25% tariff on automobile imports, calling it an attack on Canadian workers. Carney vowed, “We will defend our workers. We’ll defend our companies. We’ll defend our country. And we’ll defend it together.”
Attack On Canada’s Workers: Carney
The statement comes after the US government announced 25% tariff on personal vehicles and auto component imports. The Trump administration said it was taking this step “to end decades of unfair trade practices.” Carney responded by saying it was a direct attack, “on the very workers, that I stood in front of this morning at the Ambassador Bridge,” referring to an event that he attended earlier during the day.Carney further added, “I stood in front of this morning at the Ambassador Bridge, a bridge is a symbol and a reality up until now of the tight ties between our two countries, ties of kinship, ties of commerce, ties that in the process of being broken.”
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Trump Defends Auto Tariffs
US President Trump justified the automobile tariffs by saying, “businesses were coming back to the US so that they didn’t have to pay tariffs.” Donald Trump has also expressed confidence that the move will continue to spur growth “like you haven't seen before."
White House Explains Rationale
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf also justified the move by the Trump administration and shared the rationale behind it. He said, "In addition to spurring increased domestic manufacturing of cars and trucks, we expect that these tariffs will result in over $100 billion of new annual revenue to the United States of America."
“Ending Unfair Trade Practices”
The Trump administration has claimed that the auto tariff decision ends decades of “unfair trade practices.” Explaining it further, the administration claimed that for too long, America’s automobile industry had been battered by a flood of cheap imports.
