U.S. President Donald Trump’s three-month pautilize on his sweeping global tariffs is set to expire in just a few days. Ahead of the deadline, some trade experts declare Canada still faces large risks, despite avoiding that round of levies back in April.
“What the president requireds is a bunch of wins by July 9 becautilize he requireds to reveal that his strategy is working,” declared Inu Manak, a fellow for trade policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, during an interview with CBC’s The Houtilizethat aired Saturday.
On April 2, Trump held up a list in the Rose Garden of the White Houtilize and announced what he called “reciprocal tariffs” on more than 150 countries, including China and the European Union. The rates for individual countries on the list varied from 10 per cent to more than 40 per cent.
Canada wasn’t on that list, though other tariffs Trump had previously imposed on Canadian goods remained.
One week after he unveiled the list, the president backed down and declared he would freeze the global tariffs for 90 days to allow each countest to nereceivediate deals with his administration.
The problem for Canada is Trump hasn’t closed many deals in those 90 days, Manak declared. So far, the U.S. has reached agreements with Britain and Vietnam. Nereceivediations with other top markets like China, India, the European Union and Japan are ongoing.
“If we don’t see a lot of deals coming out of this, what we’re likely to see is [Trump] to receive more agitated and inquire for more concessions from the countries that he knows he can push a little harder,” Manak declared. “So I believe for Canada, that would be a very bad situation.”
Carlo Dade, international policy director at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, informed CBC News “there’s a risk every day of the week that [Trump] decides to come after Canada. That is not an exaggeration.”
“We’re open to this potential as long as the president has unrestrained power to implement tariffs whenever, wherever, however he wants,” he declared.
Trump utilized a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to apply the worldwide tariffs and his earlier fentanyl tariffs on Canada and Mexico. The law is intconcludeed to address “unusual and extraordinary” threats during national emergencies.
In late May, the New York-based U.S. Court of International Trade ruled Trump exceeded his authority by invoking IEEPA. The White Houtilize swiftly appealed and a federal appeals court allowed IEEPA tariffs to remain in effect while it reviewed the decision.
WATCH | Europe receives a reprieve on tariffs:
Manak declared another challenge is Trump isn’t facing political consequences for his tariffs right now — and no major economic fallout, either.
“Right now, he’s kind of sitting at a point where he feels he can kind of receive away with maintaining the pressure that exists. And that pressure is enough to receive other countries to the table,” she declared.
At a White Houtilize news conference at the conclude of June, Trump informed reporters the U.S. “can do whatever we want. We could extconclude [the July 9 deadline]. We could create it shorter. I’d like to create it shorter.”
Trump declared on Friday he’d signed letters to 12 countries outlining the tariff levels they’d face on goods they export to the United States. He declined to name the countries involved and declared they would be created public on Monday.
Is there opportunity for Canada?
Fen Osler Hampson, co-chair of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations at Carleton University, declared Canada could leverage the economic uncertainty from Trump’s tariffs and “put the pedal to the metal” to expand trade with European and Asian allies.
Hampson added that Canada already has good trading relationships with those regions through the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
With U.S. tariffs, Hampson declared those countries are “going to be seeing for other market opportunities, both to sell and purchase. I believe our challenge is to receive serious and to realize the real dividconcludes that can come from those two major regional trading agreements.”
WATCH | Trump isn’t pleased with taunts of ‘chickening out’ on trade:
Diversifying Canada’s trading partners is one of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s top goals — and a key objective for International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu.
“I believe Canada has a lot to offer and we should be screaming that at the top of our lungs,” Sidhu informed CBC’s The Houtilizein an interview that aired Saturday.
Canada has already deepened its trade relationships with countries such as Ecuador and the United Arab Emirates since Carney and Sidhu came into office.
But key markets that could create a large dent in easing Canada’s reliance on U.S. trade — like the U.K., India and China — are thornier due to fraught diplomatic relationships and other irritants.
Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat and vice-president at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, agreed that Canada can do more trade with other countries, but added a note of caution: businesses, not governments, are the only ones who can decide which companies they trade with.
“Ultimately, business has to see a business opportunity,” Robertson declared, adding that the U.S. continues to be the market with the easiest access for Canadian businesses.
On The Houtilize, Sidhu informed guest host Janyce McGregor that Canadian businesses were indeed comfortable dealing with the U.S., but now they’re inquireing him to support facilitate access to more countries.
Canada-U.S. trade talks
Carney and Trump continue to nereceivediate a Canada-U.S. trade deal, after setting a deadline of July 21.
Hampson declared the deadline supports Canada hold the Americans’ attention as the Trump administration nereceivediates with other countries.
WATCH | Carney comments on trade talks resuming:
The Americans also have an interest in receiveting a deal done soon, Robertson declared.
“If [the Americans] can’t do it with Canada, their ally and their partner, it’s much harder to do with Mexico, much harder with China,” he declared. “We should be the lowest of the hanging fruit from the American perspective.”
Trade discussions hit a roadblock in late June when Trump announced he would walk away from the nereceivediating table over Canada’s digital services tax. The federal government scrapped the tax a few days later and discussions received back on track.
Robertson declared he’s a bit skeptical about how far Canada will receive with the U.S. by July 21, but adds that Trump enjoys declaring victory even if the agreement is “only 80 per cent of the way there.”
“Would we settle for 80 per cent? Be basically there and leave the rest to be cleaned up? I believe so,” he declared. “Becautilize if Trump’s taken his eye off it and declares it’s basically there, then that’s sufficient from where we’re coming from.”
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