Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday his government is not considering hitting American goods with more retaliatory tariffs even as the trade war rages on, because there are signs that the bilateral talks on relief are headed in the right direction.
Carney is facing pressure from some premiers, like Ontario’s Doug Ford, and organized labour to take on U.S. President Donald Trump as he ramps up his tariffs on critical sectors — levies that have drawn jobs and investment away from Canada.
His comments come days after Stellantis announced it would produce its Jeep Compass in Illinois, rather than at the automaker’s Brampton, Ont., plant — a decision that the prime minister called “a direct consequence” of U.S. trade actions.
Ford, who is set to meet with Carney later Thursday, said his message to the prime minister is: “If we can’t get a deal, let’s start hitting the U.S. back hard.”
“We are nice, nice, nice. Play nice in the sandbox,” Ford told reporters. “I am sick and tired of sitting and rolling over. We need to fight back.”
But Carney said it’s not the time for that, given Canada and U.S. officials are locked in negotiations.
“There’s time to hit back and there’s time to talk. And right now it’s time to talk,” Carney told reporters at an unrelated announcement on crime. “We’re having intense negotiations.”
As for the idled Brampton plant — among the first major Canadian casualties of Trump’s campaign to draw auto manufacturing back to the U.S. — Carney said he spoke to Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa and expressed Canada’s “disappointment” that the automaker is moving some production from Ontario to Illinois.
Stellantis said Wednesday it may eventually move another model to the Brampton plant.
Carney said Filosa told him that decision depends on the outcome of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) renegotiation that will get underway next year — a process that will likely include reviewing the autos component, given Trump’s fixation on bolstering U.S. car manufacturing.
In the meantime, Carney said some laid off Brampton autoworkers can move to the company’s Windsor plant, which is adding a third shift to ramp up production of Chrysler Pacifica minivans, among other products.
Carney said the government expects the company to offer retraining support to affected workers.
