Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is meeting his cabinet to discuss a response to the latest US tariff threat, which he has called a “direct attack” on Canadian car workers.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would target imported vehicles and vehicle parts with a 25% tax, stating: “This is permanent.”
Carney, the Liberal Party leader, has switched his campaign plans ahead of next month’s general election to confront the latest import duties.
The US has already partially imposed a blanket 25% tariff on Canadian goods, along with a 25% duty on all aluminium and steel imports. Canada has so far retaliated with about C$60bn ($42bn; £32bn) of tariffs on US goods.
The new car tariffs will come into effect on 2 April, with charges on businesses importing vehicles starting the next day, the White House said. Taxes on parts are set to start in May or later.
Early on Thursday morning, Trump warned Canada and the EU against joining forces versus the US in the trade war.
“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
Carney met his ministers in Ottawa on Thursday morning to “discuss trade options”. He had originally been scheduled to campaign in Quebec.
The Liberal leader said on Wednesday night it was time to chat with the US president.
“It would be appropriate that the president and I speak given the action he has taken. I’m sure that will happen soon,” Carney said.
Trump and the new prime minister, who was sworn in earlier this month, have yet to talk.
Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservatives, the main opposition party, called the tariffs “unjustified and unprovoked”.
The NDP, a left-wing party that previously helped prop up the minority Liberal government of ex-PM Justin Trudeau, also switched its campaign plans on Thursday.
Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, is spending the day meeting union leaders and car workers in Windsor, Ontario, an auto manufacturing hub across from Detroit, Michigan.
Canadians go to the polls on 28 April.
The US imported about eight million cars last year – accounting for about $240bn in trade and roughly half of overall sales.
Earlier this month, after he became Liberal leader and before he was sworn in as prime minister, Carney gave a victory speech in which he lambasted the US president.
“A person who worships at the altar of Donald Trump will kneel before him, not stand up to him,” he said, while assailing his main rival, Poilievre.
Mexico is the top supplier of cars to the US, followed by South Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, in a news conference on Thursday morning, declined to comment directly on the new auto tariffs.
She vowed her government would “always defend Mexico”, and fight to maintain job creation and protect Mexican companies affected by import taxes.
She said Mexico would provide an “integral response” to the Trump administration’s tariffs on 3 April, the day after many are due to come into effect.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly noted that many US car companies have operations in both Mexico and Canada, which are bound by a North American free trade agreement that Trump himself negotiated during his first term in the White House.
“Of course, there shouldn’t be tariffs,” she said on Thursday. “That’s the essence of the free trade agreement.”
