“The first victims of these tariffs will be the Americans themselves,” said Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, during an August 7 press conference in which she discussed the country’s approach to looming U.S. tariffs.
The conference was streamed live by Global News, and comes on the heels of an announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump to impose a 10 per cent levy on certain Canadian aluminum products.
“In imposing these tariffs, the United States has taken the absurd position to harm its own people at a time when its economy is suffering the deepest crisis since the Great Depression,” said Freeland, later adding that “Any American who buys a can of beer or a soda, or a car or a bike, will suffer.”
Freeland said Canada plans to hit back with $3.6 billion as part of its dollar-for-dollar countermeasure approach, which will target products like washing machines and golf clubs, among others. The federal government will consult with the industry prior to imposing the levies on September 16.
In an interview with Canadian auto dealer, CADA Chief Economist Oumar Dicko echoed Freeland’s comments, calling the move by the Trump administration “extremely disappointing” and absurd. U.S. tariffs on certain aluminum products will reportedly be imposed on August 16.
Dicko said imposing these tariffs during the recovery period will be bad for the American economy, as the brunt of the impact will fall on U.S. manufacturers that rely heavily on Canadian aluminum for their production.
“It will hurt the U.S. consumers; it will hurt U.S. workers,” said Dicko. “We will certainly have a dialogue with our U.S. counterparts to put pressure on the U.S. side to remove these tariffs (when officially imposed), because the tariffs will effectively hurt U.S. vehicle manufacturers and increase the price of production.”
He said the onus is on U.S. manufacturers to put pressure on their administration to remove the upcoming tariffs.
