New Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney said on Wednesday that his country would soon respond to new tariffs on imported vehicles announced by US President Donald Trump and could impose retaliatory measures against the United States.
Carney said Trump's move was a direct attack, saying he would be convening a high-level cabinet meeting on Thursday to decide on a response.
“We will defend our workers, we will defend our companies, we will defend our country, and we will defend it together,” he said.
The tariffs reportedly look set to damage the highly integrated North American auto industry.
Canada has already announced a package of retaliatory tariffs totaling C$155 billion that it said would be imposed in stages depending on what Trump did.
Asked when Canada would react, Carney, without giving details said: “It will happen soon … we have options. We can introduce retaliatory tariffs.”
Carney, who has already mused about non-tariff measures such as levying export duties on commodity exports to the United States, said it would be appropriate to speak to Trump soon.
DAILY POST reports that the two men have not spoken since Carney was sworn in as prime minister earlier this month.
The Canadian prime minister said he had spoken to Ontario premier Doug Ford, who earlier told reporters that they were going to make sure that they inflict as much pain as possible to the American people without inflicting pain on the Canadian population.
Ford told reporters he would soon be speaking to the other nine provinces on a coordinated response.
“We have two options here – we either roll over as a country and he runs us over 15 times and gets what he wants, or we feel a little bit of pain and fight like we have never fought before. I prefer the latter – I believe in fighting,” he said.
