Dominic LeBlanc says Trump is 'vandalizing' agreement between countries
Canada imposed with a 25 per cent auto tariff as other countries face steeper levies
Dominic LeBlanc says U.S. President Donald Trump is destroying trade agreements following new auto tariffs on Canada.
Leblanc, the minister of international trade and New Brunswick MP, said that "what Mr. Trump is doing he's basically vandalizing the economic arrangement between Canada and the United States."
Canada was hit with a new 25 per cent auto tariff on assembled vehicles while previous levies of the same amount on aluminum and steel still stand.
Trump announced 10 per cent tariffs on dozens of countries on Wednesday as well as a higher fee on China, the European Union and Vietnam.
David Campbell, an economic consultant based Moncton, believes that Canada has "certainly dodged a bullet" compared to other countries facing steeper tariffs.
"These are still very, very large multi-billion dollar tariffs that are going to have impacts across the country, but it's certainly a fraction of what the concern was," said Campbell.
Canada has struck back at the U.S. with "dollar-for-dollar" auto tariffs that "will go into effect this weekend," according to LeBlanc.
He believes that "all of this is absolutely counterproductive to building a growing economy."
Dominic LeBlanc says Trump is ‘vandalizing’ Canada-U.S. economic arrangementThis follows dollar-for-dollar counter tariffs against U.S. aluminum and steel that are already in place.
The money received from the counter tariffs will be used to support Canadian businesses and workers in impacted industries, said LeBlanc.
He said that counter tariffs are intended to cause economic hardship in the U.S. in hope that they lift their tariffs.
"At the end of the day, one of the things we think will be most important is for the Americans to see the economic damage they're doing to themselves."
The U.S. stock markets reacted to the trade war on Thursday experiencing a COVID-19 like crash.
"If you look at the stock markets, I would think President Trump, Secretary Howard Lutnick, these people know the American stock markets very well. It hasn't been a good week in the United States economy," said LeBlanc.
Tariffs from the U.S. have been previously delayed and Campbell said that now Trump will be evaluating negotiations moving forward.
"Maybe the logic there is instead of putting the tariffs on right now, wait to see how those negotiations come out and then decide what you're going to do after that," said Campbell.
Economist
David Campbell believes Canada 'dodged a bullet' following U.S
President Donald Trump's most recent tariff announcement. Canada will
face a 25 per cent auto tariff that will effect Ontario the most,
sending an economic ripple across the country, he says. (Lars Schwarz/CBC)
LeBlanc has been at the centre of trade negotiations and listened to Prime Minister Mark Carney's most recent phone call with President Trump. He said that Carney and Trump both agreed that whoever wins Canada's April 28 election would need to "sit down with Mr. Trump."
"We have long-term concerns about the, of course, reliability of our most important trading partner. That's why we think it's much more productive to have a discussion," said LeBlanc.
Impact on New Brunswick
Campbell said that New Brunswick will feel a direct and an indirect impact from Trump's most recent tariffs.
Just over 90 per cent of New Brunswick's exports head south of the border but the province won't feel auto tariffs like Ontario will.
New Brunswick still has its own companies in the auto industry, such as Malley Industries, that produces ambulances in Dieppe.
"We have ambulance manufacturers and other suppliers. So, it's certainly just a fraction of what you would see in Ontario, but we do have some of that," said Campbell.
LeBlanc
has been working alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney at the centre of
trade negotiations with President Trump and the U.S. (Amber Bracken/Reuters)
Indirectly, Ontario is the largest economy in Canada and according to Campbell, any economic downturn there will send a "ripple" across the country.
He said that New Brunswick can expect a number of economic impacts, including inflation.
Long-term threats
LeBlanc said that in the long term there are five sectors that Trump intends to leave tariffs on.
"The president is going to try and restore or build up domestic capacity in the United States in five sectors by putting tariffs on global trading partners in steel and aluminum, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, lumber and semiconductor chips," said LeBlanc.
He said that he worries about the forestry industry the most.
Campbell said that Canadian businesses "are going to be forced to invest in the U.S." by building production facilities in the country to avoid tariffs.
Both Campbell and LeBlanc agree that Canada needs to diversify itself to minimize its reliance on the U.S.
"We desperately have to get Canadian businesses in a position where we can diversify our markets," said LeBlanc.
Campbell said Canada should be promoting more inter-provincial trade and look at developing new international markets.
"We've got to diversify away from the U.S."
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Markets plunge worldwide for a second day straight following China's tariff retaliation
Stocks took a tumble again on Friday, with Dow closing down 2,200 points
North American markets plummet over concerns of increased global trade barriersWall Street's worst crisis since COVID slammed into a higher, scarier gear Friday.
The S&P 500 lost six per cent after China matched U.S. President Donald Trump's big raise in tariffs announced earlier this week. The move increased the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession that hurts everyone. Not even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, which is usually the economic highlight of each month, was enough to stop the slide.
The drop closed the worst week for the S&P 500 since March 2020, when the pandemic crashed the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 2,231 points, or 5.5 per cent Friday, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 5.8 per cent to pull more than 20 per cent below its record set in December.
Canada's main stock index, S&P/TSX, closed down 1,142 points. Although it was one of the biggest single-day point changes since 2020, the 4.6 per cent loss didn't crack the top twenty for worst ever single-day losses, showing that we've weathered sharper drops before.
So far, there are few, if any winners, in financial markets from the trade war. Stocks for all but 12 of the 500 companies that make up the S&P 500 index fell Friday. European stocks saw some of the day's biggest losses, with indexes sinking roughly five per cent. The price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021.
Other basic building blocks for growth, such as copper, also saw prices slide sharply on worries the trade war will weaken the entire global economy.
China's response to U.S. tariffs caused an immediate acceleration of losses in markets worldwide. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said it would respond to the 34 per cent tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China by imposing a 34 per cent tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10.
The United States and China are the world's two largest economies.
A
screen shows trading indexes at the New York Stock Exchange on
Thursday. Stock markets took a tumble again on Friday, after China
announced retaliatory tariffs in response to the U.S.'s earlier this
week. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
"The market's reaction is delivering a verdict and we should take that seriously," Brendan LaCerda, director of economic research at Moody's Analytics, told CBC News.
Investors hadn't expected Trump's tariffs to be as high as they were, or China's retaliation to be as strong, he said. As investors react to this and crunch the numbers on their profit forecasts, "the outlook is just turning decidedly darker."
"Where does the market find its bottom?" he said. "That's a little bit of an open question."
Even though Canada was one of the few countries that didn't get struck with additional "reciprocal" tariffs on Wednesday by the U.S., Canadian markets are still fluctuating amid the global instability.
Traders work in their booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday (Richard Drew/The Associated Press)
The losses on Friday are "stunning, but not surprising," Earl Davis, head of fixed income and money markets at BMO Global Asset Management, told CBC News.
He said the next Bank of Canada meeting, on April 19, is "a big one," to see if rate cuts could bring more stability to the markets. But for the next couple of weeks, experts are predicting markets will remain "volatile," he said.
Better-than-expected U.S. jobs report
Markets briefly recovered some of their losses following Friday morning's U.S. jobs report, which said employers accelerated their hiring by more last month than economists expected. But that jobs data was backward-looking, and the fear hitting financial markets is about what's to come.
"The world has changed, and the economic conditions have changed," said Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at U.S. investment bank BlackRock.
The central question is: Will the trade war cause a global recession? If it does, stock prices will likely need to come down even more than they have already. The S&P 500 is down 17.4 per cent from its record set in February.
Trump seems unfazed. From Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., he headed to his golf course a few miles away after writing on social media that "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH."
Much will depend on how long Trump's tariffs stick and what kind of retaliations other countries deliver. Some of Wall Street is still holding onto hope Trump will lower the tariffs after negotiating with other countries to pry out some "wins." Otherwise, many say a recession looks likely.
Trump has given mixed signals on that. On Friday, he said an official from Vietnam said his country already "wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S." Trump also criticized China's retaliation, saying on his Truth Social platform that "CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED - THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!"
Trump has said Americans may feel "some pain" because of tariffs, but he has also said the long-term goals, including getting more manufacturing jobs back to the United States, are worth it. On Thursday, he likened the situation to a medical operation, where the U.S. economy is the patient.
Trump brushes off tariff-related market chaos: ‘It’s going very well’"For investors looking at their portfolios, it could have felt like an operation performed without anesthesia," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
But he said the next surprise for investors could be how quickly tariffs get negotiated down. "The speed of recovery will depend on how, and how quickly, officials negotiate," he said.
Stocks plummeting in wake of China move
On Wall Street, stocks of companies that do lots of business in China fell to some of the sharpest losses.
GE Healthcare got 12 per cent of its revenue last year from the China region, and it fell 16 per cent.
DuPont dropped 12.7 per cent after China said its regulators are launching an anti-trust investigation into DuPont China group, a subsidiary of the chemical multinational. It's one of several measures targeting American companies in retaliation for the U.S. tariffs.
In the bond market, Treasury yields fell, but they pared their drops following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's cautious statements about inflation.
"Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well-anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem," Powell said in written remarks being delivered in Arlington, Va.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.01 per cent from 4.06 per cent late Thursday and from roughly 4.80 per cent early this year. It had gone below 3.90 per cent in the morning.
Federal
Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in written remarks on Friday that
tariffs could drive up inflation expectations, throwing a complication
into predictions for future rate cuts. (Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied on Friday that global economies were being impacted, insisting that the markets would "adjust" in time.
"Their economies are not crashing. The markets are reacting to a dramatic change in the global order in terms of trade," he said, speaking from Brussels after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 322.44 points to 5,074.08. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 2,231.07 to 38,314.86, and the Nasdaq composite fell 962.82 to 15,587.79.
In stock markets abroad, Germany's DAX lost 5 per cent, France's CAC 40 dropped 4.3 per cent and Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.8 per cent.
With files from CBC News
Global stock markets reeling following Trump's tariffs shock
Lululemon, Nike, Apple stocks take early hit
Financial markets around the world are reeling in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's latest and most severe volley of tariffs — and the U.S. stock market may be taking the worst of it.
The S&P 500 was down four per cent in early trading Thursday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.5 per cent and the Nasdaq composite was off 5.10 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.19 cents US, compared with 69.83 cents US on Wednesday.
Little was spared as fear flared globally about the potentially higher inflation and weakening economic growth that tariffs can create.
Trump said he would impose a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and higher duties on some of the country's biggest trading partners. The new levies ratchet up a trade war that Trump kicked off on his return to the White House.
Investors dashed to the relative safety of bonds, gold and the yen. U.S. Treasury yields slid, China's yuan dropped to a seven-week low, and the dollar came under heavy selling pressure.
'Trust in President Trump,' says White House as markets tumbleThe dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six others, fell 1.6 per cent to 102.03, its lowest since early October. The dollar index is down more than 5.7 per cent this year.
The euro, the largest component in the index, gained 1.5 per cent to a six-month high of $1.1021 US.
The yen strengthened to a three-week high against the dollar and was last up 1.7 per cent at 146.76 per dollar, while the Swiss franc touched its strongest level in five months at 0.86555 per dollar.
"It's very difficult actually to see how other countries make concessions that would encourage the U.S. to lift these tariffs. And I think that's a big underpriced risk," said Nicholas Rees, head of macro research at Monex Europe.
Big tech, retailers feel early pain
Apple sank 6.5 per cent, hit by an aggregate 54 per cent tariff on China — the base for much of Apple's manufacturing. Microsoft dropped 1.8 per cent, Nvidia slipped 3.5 per cent and Amazon.com fell 5.1 per cent.
"Eye-watering tariffs on a country-by-country basis scream 'negotiation tactic,' which will keep markets on edge for the foreseeable future," said Adam Hetts, global head of multi-asset and a portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors.
Auto sector braces for 25% tariffs, other industries already feeling painRetailers were hit hard on Thursday, with Lulemon falling 10.3 per cent, Nike dropping 8.3 per cent and Walmart 6.2 per cent after Trump imposed some of the most punitive tariff rates on major production hubs including Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and China.
Auto industry heavyweights were also also down — General Motors by two per cent and Tesla falling about five per cent.
Wall Street's fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility index, touched a three-week high at 25.64 points.
EU plots response
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen described the tariffs as a major blow to the world economy and said the 27-member bloc was prepared to respond with countermeasures if talks with Washington failed.
Von der Leyen said the EU was already finalizing a first package of tariffs on up to 26 billion euros ($28.4 billion US) of U.S. goods for mid-April in response to American steel and aluminum tariffs that took effect on March 12.
"And we're now preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail," von der Leyen said in a statement she read out in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on Thursday, ahead of an EU-Central Asia partnership summit.
The EU also faces 25 per cent U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum tariffs, on cars from Thursday and on car parts within a month, with pharmaceuticals possibly to come.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday will host representatives of business sectors that will be hit by the new tariffs, which apply from Saturday.
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
Trump slaps retaliatory tariffs on dozens of countries but Canada is spared the worst this time
U.S. president announces a 25% levy on foreign-made vehicles
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday his long-awaited plan to impose what he's calling "retaliatory" tariffs on imports coming from dozens of countries — but the White House said there will be no more across-the-board levies applied to Canada than what has previously been announced.
Trump said however that he is going ahead with a 25 per cent tariff on "all foreign-made" automobiles as of midnight Wednesday, which could have severe implications for the Canadian auto sector.
The White House said that tariff rate will apply to Canadian-made passenger vehicles, but there is a caveat — it will only be levied on the value of all non-U.S. content in that automobile.
Trump also said he would apply "a minimum baseline tariff of 10 per cent" on all goods coming into the U.S., with rates higher than that for countries the president said have supposedly been more egregious about ripping off the Americans.
In a fact sheet disseminated to reporters after Trump's announcement, the White House said Canada will not be subjected to that additional baseline tariff rate because the previously announced border-related tariffs will continue to apply instead.
Trump slapped a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods (and 10 per cent on energy) last month, supposedly in response to drugs and migrants coming into the U.S. across the northern border, but made some exceptions for importers who can prove the products they're bringing in from Canada are compliant with the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA).
Prime
Minister Mark Carney arrives outside the Office of the Prime Minister
and Privy Council in Ottawa before Trump's tariff announcement on
Wednesday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
Liberal Leader Mark Carney, who paused his election campaign Wednesday to meet in Ottawa with his cabinet to craft a response, said Trump's announcement has "fundamentally changed the international trading system."
Carney said Trump preserved some aspects of the Canada-U.S. "commercial relationship" by holding off on deploying the full force of reciprocal tariffs on this country. But he said the tariffs that will now take effect on autos are a particular concern, and warned there may be more to come for other sectors.
Carney said the White House has signalled to Canada that there may be more U.S. tariffs at a later date on other "strategic sectors" such as pharmaceuticals, lumber and semiconductors.
"The series of measures will directly affect millions of Canadians," Carney told reporters on his way into cabinet Wednesday.
"We're going to fight these tariffs with countermeasures. We are going to protect our workers and we are going to build the strongest economy in the G7. In a crisis it's important to come together and it's essential to act with purpose and with force, and that's what we'll do," he said.
Carney says Canada will ‘fight’ latest Trump tariffs Carney has already agreed with Trump to sit down right after this federal election and start the process of renegotiating a new, comprehensive economic and security relationship to bring this era of fractious relations to a close.
A 3-pronged approach
Trump is pursuing a three-pronged approach to tariffs as he tries to radically reshape the American economy.
There are the "reciprocal" tariffs that Trump imposed Wednesday on a whole host of other countries except Canada and Mexico.
Then there are so-called "section 232" tariffs that have already been levied on Canadian steel and aluminum and, as of midnight, will also be slapped on automobiles.
Those tariffs take their name from the section of a U.S. trade law that allows the president to impose levies on certain goods that are said to threaten "national security."
And third, there are the border-related tariffs to punish Canada for what the president has described as an "emergency" drug crisis fuelled by fentanyl coming in from the north.
The White House said Wednesday if the drug and migrant "emergency" trade order is cancelled at some point, then the tariff on goods that do not comply with USMCA will fall from 25 per cent to 12 per cent.
Still, Trump singled out Canada for criticism when announcing the latest tariff regime, repeating his oft-cited falsehood that the U.S. somehow "subsidizes" this country by $200 billion a year. The U.S. trade deficit with Canada — which is largely driven by cheap oil imports — is much smaller than that.
"You gotta work for yourselves," Trump said of Canada. "We subsidize a lot of countries, keep them going and keep them in business."
"Our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike," Trump said. "They rip us off, it's so pathetic. Now, we're going to charge."
Sharp price increases feared
Trump said the tariffs are meant to "supercharge our domestic industrial base" and force companies to make more products in the U.S., but they also risk prompting a brutal economic slowdown as consumers and businesses will soon face sharp price hikes as a result of the new taxes.
It's Trump's latest broadside against Canada, its one-time ally and free-trading partner.
In the roughly 10 weeks he's been president, Trump has been on a rampage against Canada, levying tariffs, spreading misinformation about the dairy sector, threatening the country's sovereignty with near-daily "51st state" taunts and repeatedly saying the Americans need nothing from Canada despite trade data that shows that's patently false.
Those persistent attacks and insults have damaged bilateral relations. Some Canadians are boycotting American goods, pulling travel plans to the U.S. en masse and booing the American national anthem at sporting events, actions that were thought unthinkable only a few months ago.
How to handle Trump, his tariffs and the takeover threats have also become the central issue of the upcoming federal election.
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Trump’s tariffs: Carney says Canada will fight back ‘with purpose and with force’
Carney says Canada will ‘fight’ latest Trump tariffsThe Latest
- Trump hit dozens of countries around the world with his latest round of tariffs today, but spared Canada and Mexico.
- Even though there was no direct hit to Canada this time, other tariffs the president previously announced are still on the table.
- A 25 per cent auto tariff takes effect at midnight and the levy on steel and aluminum is still in place.
- Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will fight the U.S. with "force" and "countermeasures," but didn't immediately offer details on what those might look like.
- Carney is expected to hold a news conference tomorrow.
Updates
April 2
Canada’s auto sector taking the biggest hit
Alexander Panetta
Employees work on the production line at the Martinrea auto parts
manufacturing plant in Woodbridge, Ont. on Feb. 3. (Chris Young/The
Canadian Press)But the harsh reality is that Canada's largest manufactured product, autos, still faces a hodgepodge of tariffs: 25 per cent on fully assembled vehicles and some parts, while other parts face none.
One Canada-U.S. trade consultant said Canada fared better than most countries today. But it's cold comfort for certain sectors.
“Autos is going to be massively impactful for Canada," said Eric Miller, the Canadian-born head of the Rideau Potomac consultancy in Washington.
"That's a huge amount of pain for Canada. And you will see a huge amount of restructuring and realignment in the North American auto sector.”
One industry player put it even more bluntly, in a social media post, predicting an industry standstill within days, and not just in Canada.
“The. Auto. Tariff. Package. Will. Shut. Down. The. Auto. Sector. In. The. USA. And. In. Canada," Flavio Volpe, head of Canada's auto-parts lobby, in a post on X.
“Don’t be distracted. 25% tariffs are 4 times the 6/7% profit margins of all the companies. Math, not art.”
Other Canadian sectors facing large tariffs are steel, aluminum, energy products and anything not traded under the rules of CUSMA.
Estimates range for how many goods that covers. But it appears more than half of Canada's exports to the U.S. may now face tariffs.
B.C. pushing ahead with tariff response
The minister leading B.C.'s tariff response, Ravi Kahlon, said the provincial government isn’t letting its guard down just yet, despite escaping today’s reciprocal tariffs.
“The challenge we have is that this continues to change hour by hour, day by day and anything can still happen,” Kahlon said today of Trump’s tariff policies.
B.C.’s government is going ahead with its tariff response bill, which is an attempt to break down interprovincial trade barriers and enable the province to charge U.S. trucks driving through the province.
B.C. Premier David Eby has said the province needs all the tools it can get to fight the American threat, which he said is designed to “force us into economic servitude to the U.S.”
Blanchet weighs in
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Trump’s announcement today appears to maintain the status quo for Canada.
"It seems we have a chance of being able to complete our election campaign without more American interference," Blanchet told reporters outside the Bloc campaign bus in Quebec City.
Blanchet's party has lost a significant amount of ground in Quebec in favour of the Liberals in the wake of Trump's tariff threats, according to CBC's Poll Tracker.
Poilievre calls auto tariffs ‘unfair attack’ on Canadian economy
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is speaking at a rally in Kingston, Ont., where he briefly addressed Trump’s auto tariffs before continuing with his stump speech. He called them “an unfair attack on our economy.”
“Trump is going after our autoworkers. For decades, workers on both sides of the border locked arms to build the greatest auto sector in the world. The president is betraying America’s closest friend and attacking our economy,” he told the crowd.
Poilievre said if he wins the election he would work to get a deal that immediately removes the tariffs. Earlier in the day, he laid out his plan to respond to Trump.
Alberta’s premier suggests the tariff dispute is ‘behind us.’ Carney warns more pain could be coming
Shortly before Carney stopped to speak to reporters on Parliament Hill tonight, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith posted a statement to social media in which she said "it appears the worst of this tariff dispute is behind us."
But in case anyone was in a mood to celebrate, or merely breathe a sigh of relief, the prime minister offered a few significant notes of caution.
"President Trump has just announced a series of measures that are going to fundamentally change the international trading system," Carney said.
And as Carney noted, previously announced tariffs on Canadian goods — including automobiles, steel and aluminum — will remain in place. Additional tariffs, he warned, may yet be applied to pharmaceuticals, lumber and semiconductors.
"We're in a situation where there is going to be an impact on the U.S. economy which will build with time," he said. "The series of measures will directly affect millions of Canadians."
While repeating his commitment to fight the tariffs and protect workers, Carney also used the word "crisis" to describe the situation.
In other words, the only good news is that things could have been worse. There is still a long way to go. And above and beyond trade between Canada and the United States, the ramifications of Trump's tariffs are only beginning to reverberate.
Ford hoping 25% tariff on foreign-made cars 'not written in stone'
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been in regular contact with senior U.S. trade officials. He’d been told that cars imported from Canada would only be taxed on their Canadian-made parts.
"We did have a conversation with the CEOs," Ford said, referring to automobile manufacturing companies. "I believe and hope this isn't written in stone. I believe it's going to be a lot less than 25 per cent and that's what I believe from our conversation."
Canada's auto sector is concentrated in Ontario, particularly Windsor, which has been dubbed the "automotive capital of Canada."
N.B. premier says she’s keeping countermeasures in place
Good evening, I’m a reporter in our Fredericton bureau.
New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt is one of the first Canadian leaders to speak out, just two hours after Trump announced his sweeping tariffs on much of the world.
While Canada was spared the worst, “that uncertainty doesn’t go away,” Holt said in a sombre tone.
She called today a continuation of the status quo of “unnecessary stress and pain for both of our countries.”
In a province where over 90 per cent of exports go to the U.S., Holt said the province’s plan to financially support industries impacted here and boycott U.S. business will continue.
The provincial government has stopped purchasing U.S. goods and American liquor is off the shelves. About 10 Teslas that the province owns are “sitting in a parking lot” while the province looks into selling them, she added.
While steel, aluminum and auto manufacturing are not New Brunswick’s main industries, the province will still face pain, Holt said.
“You don't treat your neighbours like this.”
Carney promises to ‘act with purpose and with force’
Carney says Canada will ‘fight’ latest Trump tariffsN.B. may have dodged bullet with Trump tariff plan, but uncertainty remains, Holt says
Premier says province will continue with counter-measures and tariff-relief plan
Just two hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs Wednesday across much of the world, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt was one of the first Canadian leaders to speak out.
While Canada was spared the worst tariffs, "that uncertainty doesn't go away," Holt said at a news conference, calling the result for New Brunswick a continuation of the status quo.
"After months of uncertainty, this means unnecessary stress and pain for both of our countries, and that hasn't gone away today."
Trump announced varying tariffs on much of the world, but left out Canada and Mexico, because they fall under the existing Canada-U.S.-Mexico pact. But a 25 per cent auto tariff applies to imports from Canada, along with the recently announced 25 per cent tariffs on aluminum and steel.
N.B premier responds to uncertainty of Trump’s tariff announcementWhile she said she's not ready to celebrate yet, Holt said it was fair to say New Brunswick dodged a bullet.
"So to be sitting here today without new tariffs on Canada aside from the automobile sector, that is better than expected," she said. But since Trump launched his trade war, Canadians have seen how quickly things can change, she added.
In New Brunswick, where more than 90 per cent of exports go to the U.S., Holt said the government will continue with its plan, announced March 4, to financially support industries impacted through a $62 million tariff relief package, and its boycott of U.S. business will continue.
While the province has not disbursed any funds to applicants yet, she said, the support will be available soon.
U.S.
President Donald Trump announces a tariff plan affecting dozens of
countries in a speech outside the White House on Wednesday. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
The provincial government has stopped purchasing U.S. goods, and American liquor is off the shelves.
About 10 Teslas the province owns are "sitting in a parking lot" while the province looks into selling them, she said.
While steel, aluminum and auto manufacturing are not New Brunswick's main industries, the province will still face pain, Holt said.
"You don't treat your neighbours like this."
New Brunswick industries like forestry and agriculture have been impacted by the uncertainty of the trade war, Holt said, because U.S. clients held off ordering Canadian goods until they knew what tariffs would be imposed.
"Uncertainty has had a broad impact, because there has been a real slowdown of activity of companies that were going to make purchases in Canada."
She said the Team Canada messaging to U.S. politicians and business leaders about the dangers of tariffs on the American public has been working.
And while Holt said she can't speak for why Trump's tone on Canada has changed during some weeks of threats, she said it's not a coincidence that it coincides with Liberal Leader Mark Carney becoming prime minister.
"It is a good thing that the tone has changed and that we're seeing more respectful language."
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Canada expecting smaller hit from Trump's global tariffs, says N.B. premier after meeting PM
Carney told premiers Canada expected to fall in lowest tariff tier, says Susan Holt
U.S. President Donald Trump says he'll impose sweeping global tariffs on Wednesday, but New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says Prime Minister Mark Carney told provincial and territorial leaders that Canada is expected to sustain less damage than other trading partners.
After meeting with Carney on Friday, Holt said Sunday that it was "encouraging" to hear "it looks like we will receive a favourable — if you can call it that — level of tariffs."
According to Holt, the prime minister told premiers the expectation is different tiers of tariffs, and for Canada to fall in the lowest level — "as low as 10 or 15 per cent."
Not only that, the tariffs may not be applied across the entire Canadian economy, she said.
"It means that our projections in New Brunswick for a potential 11,000 people to lose their jobs can shrink down to something smaller than that," Holt said in an interview on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live.
On Thursday, after Trump announced a 25 per cent tariff on all finished vehicles imported into the United States, Carney spoke with reporters about the upcoming global tariffs and alluded to a relatively positive outcome.
"We have the best deal of a bad deal, is the way I would term it within what the Americans have proposed," Carney said.
Carney promises to fight back on auto tariffs, will speak to Trump soonThe prime minister added Canada has "a number of measures" it can take in response. But he was light on details.
"In a negotiation, it doesn't make sense to say what you're going to do going forward," Carney said.
Holt said the premiers discussed Canada's retaliatory strategy and they want the response to be "appropriate, strategic and proportional."
Carney talks to Trump
The prime minister spoke with Trump on Friday for the first time since being sworn in. The U.S. president respected Canada's sovereignty during the conversation, Carney said.
"Perhaps there was a different impression before about how strong Canada really is," he said during a news conference in Montreal.
Carney said the call was "cordial" and "positive."
On Friday, Trump described his conversation with Carney as "very productive."
Trump and Carney hail ‘very productive’ first call but tariffs are still coming"I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
That one line is notable in its own right given Trump repeatedly called former prime minister Justin Trudeau "governor."
The prime minister said he and Trump agreed to sit down and negotiate a comprehensive "new" economic and security relationship between the two countries should Carney win next month's federal election.
In the meantime, Carney said cabinet members will stay in touch with their U.S. counterparts, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
What motivates these global tariffs?
In mid-March, several Canadian representatives went down to Washington to speak with some of Trump's top trade representatives. Coming out of the meetings, the Canadians said they got a clearer understanding of the rationale behind Trump's tariffs.
The focus of the U.S. government is dealing with its yearly deficit in federal spending, according to David Paterson, Ontario's representative in Washington.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the federal government ran a $1.83 trillion US deficit in the 2024 fiscal year.
There are three things the U.S. government is doing that affect the deficit, Paterson said during an interview on CBC's Power & Politics two weeks ago.
What was said at the 'productive' meeting in D.C. this week?The first is a major budget resolution that calls for trillions of dollars in spending and tax cuts, which is "something that must not increase that deficit further while keeping tax levels and competitiveness low," Paterson told host David Cochrane.
The other two are measures to help make the spending and tax cuts happen without growing the deficit, including slashing government spending through Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and tariffs, which are meant to be a new revenue source and attract investment into the United States.
"Tariffs are now a global policy of the United States," Paterson said. "This is a historic change to global trading patterns, and [the Americans are] very aware of that."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Catharine Tunney, Peter Zimonjic
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