canada automakers get one-month break from crushing trump tariffs
donald trump says he’s granted a one-month tariff exemption for any vehicles coming through the canada-u.s.-mexico agreement on trade
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u.s. president donald trump, left, and prime minister justin trudeau spoke on the phone wednesday.
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u.s. president donald trump says he’s granted a one-month tariff exemption for any vehicles coming through the canada-u.s.-mexico agreement on trade, a ray of economic hope for southwestern ontario’s huge auto sector.
white house press secretary karoline leavitt on wednesday said the big three automakers – stellantis, ford and general motors – asked for an exemption to the tariffs when they spoke to trump.
leavitt said reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect april 2 but the president is granting a month-long exemption so those automakers are not placed “at an economic disadvantage.”
leavitt told reporters the purpose of the one-month reprieve is to give automakers time to “shift production here to the united states of america where they will pay no tariff, that’s the ultimate goal.”
commerce secretary howard lutnick told fox news wednesday afternoon that trump was also “leaning towards coming up with an idea” that allows a tariff exclusion for canadian and mexican markets that are in compliance with the free-trade deal.
he cited the automakers’ meeting, saying the companies asked trump, “if we comply with usmca (cusma), meaning we’ve got u.s. parts in our cars, can’t you help us?”
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gm runs the 1,300-worker cami plant in ingersoll, stellantis runs a huge operation in windsor and both are serviced by many parts plants across southwestern ontario. it was not initially clear if the one-month exemption applied to asian automakers operating in ontario such as toyota that employs roughly 9,000 in woodstock and cambridge.
mahmood nanji, a former ontario associate deputy minister of finance who teaches government relations at the ivey business school at western university, said he wonders what will be different in 30 days.
“it’s just kind of postponing the inevitable, which is that in 30 days, we’re back at the same position where the auto industry will find itself in a situation where we’ll probably shut down in a week or 10 days time because of the integrated nature of the auto sector.”
for companies that require stability and predictability, the 30-day reprieve gives them neither, nanji said.
“for the auto manufacturers, for the parts manufacturers, for communities, this doesn’t give them any kind of comfort. that anxiety is still there. we have 30 days, but for the next four weeks, people will still be very anxious, as they would otherwise.”
brendan sweeney, director of the trillium network for advanced manufacturing, a manufacturers’ advocacy group, said trump’s move wednesday is in keeping with the “chaos game” he likes to play.
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“the real hope is that this is all just part of some bigger negotiation strategy. it’s kind of playing out like that, but you’ve got to end all this stuff with a ‘but.’ who knows what this guy is going to do next? he doesn’t know, nobody knows.”
in a post on truth social, trump says trudeau “called me to ask what could be done about tariffs” and trump insisted the actions canada has taken to curb the flow of fentanyl into the u.s. are not good enough.
he ended his post by falsely claiming trudeau was trying to use the tariff issue to stay in power as prime minister. trudeau is set to step down after the liberals choose a new leader on sunday.
trump says he told trudeau that he largely caused the problems because of his “weak border policies.”
the call ended “in a somewhat friendly manner,” trump wrote.
trump’s tariffs could be devastating for canada’s economy – and crippling across the london region. in 2023, more than 700 businesses in london exported about $7.8 billion worth of goods to the united states, mostly in automotive and manufacturing but also in food and agriculture, statistics canada figures show.
with files from canadian press
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