Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told him that the upcoming car tariffs may not apply to some finished vehicles entering the U.S. from Canada.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he signed an executive order to import tariffs on unmanufactured U.S. vehicles after April 2 reached 25%. He vowed to follow a 25% tariff on certain auto parts outside the U.S. in May, which could result in an eventual tariff on all auto parts.
But Ford told reporters Thursday that tariffs on vehicles imported from Canada may be lower than Trump initially pointed out.
Ford said he spoke with Lutnik Wednesday night, and he told him that vehicles made from more than 50% of U.S.-made parts will not be subject to tariffs.
Two senior Ford administration officials said anonymously that they were not authorized to discuss negotiations publicly, telling Toronto CBC toronto they tried to figure out that most of the vehicles made in Canada would not be levied under that definition.
Ford said he was also told that less than 50% of Canadian-made vehicles would be levied 12.5%, half of what Trump said on Wednesday.
Despite the possibility of a softer blow, Ford said the reduced tariffs remained “not good at all.”
Canada – Another official private discussion in the United States recently said the two countries have been talking about potential probation for several days and the discussion is positive.
“The fat lady didn’t sing until April 2,” the official said, and he also had no right to discuss the negotiations publicly. “We hope we can go further.”
Ford, Carney says they will wait for revenge
It’s hard to predict exactly what will apply since Trump began threatening tariffs on Canada. Since taking office, he has threatened and suspended tariffs on several occasions.
The threat is a devastating blow to thousands of workers in Ontario, where the automotive sector is one of the province’s largest sources of employment. Some experts say the tariffs could lead to a shutdown of North America’s highly integrated automotive industry, where auto parts can pass multiple times between Canada, Mexico and the United States before the vehicle is completed.
Ford said on Wednesday that Trump’s automatic tariff announcement was surprising and he thought he would notify him in advance.
Ford said on Thursday that he will soon meet with the Canadian Prime Minister, Prime Minister and CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Stratlandis.
He said he supports retaliatory tariffs on American consumers “as much pain as possible.”
He told reporters before Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech to Canadians: “I had a good conversation with the Prime Minister. He agreed 100%.
Liberal leader Mark Carney acknowledged that automatic tariffs proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump would damage Canada’s economy, but said the country would be “more powerful” from the trade war. “We have to pay attention to ourselves, we have to pay attention to each other,” he said.
Carney interrupted his campaign Thursday to host a meeting on Canada-U.S. trade relations. In a press conference Thursday afternoon, he said Canada will wait until after April 2 to respond to Trump’s tariffs, but said the ongoing trade war could be a “crisis for our lifetime” for Canadians.
Carney has previously announced a $20 billion proposal to protect Canada’s automotive industry. He said Wednesday that the Strategic Response Fund will be used to improve the competitiveness of the automotive sector, protect manufacturing work, help workers gain expertise and build Canadian supply chains in Canada.
Ontario auto workers’ disgust for being confronted”
For months, Ontario auto workers have been dealing with uncertainty.
Union members representing workers at the General Motors factory in Oshawa gathered there Thursday with the national president of Unifor to discuss a counterattack strategy.
“We were a little nervous at first,” Unifor Local 222 President Jeff Gray spoke about Trump’s tariff threat that even began before he even took office in January. “But now we are tired of being antagonistic.”
Trump said auto companies should move production to the U.S. to avoid tariffs, but Unifor’s national president Lana Payne told members Thursday that the Canadian auto industry was “not a steal from Donald Trump.”
“If you think you can transfer production, factories, factories and reinvestment in the United States to Canada and think you will have public access to our market, then you need to think about it again,” she said.
Lear Oshawa’s union president Bill McCollom, who is serving GM truck seats, said he had 350 workers going bankrupt if GM moved, including nearly 100 Ukrainians whose status in Canada depends on their jobs. Even Oshawa people who don’t work in the automotive industry will be hit hard, he said.
“When this happened a few years ago, Oshawa became a ghost town,” he said, when it closed in 2018. Later, it reopened after union negotiations.
Several workers outside the Oshawa plant told Toronto on Thursday that the provincial and federal governments should work hard to crack down and do their best to support auto workers.
Chris Vavassori entered the automotive industry in 1995 and is one of them. He said Ottawa and Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford “should throw everything on the table” to protect Canada’s work.
