Canadian mould makers met in person with the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, last week in Windsor, Ont., after the recent tariff increases on steel and aluminum crossing the border.
A U.S. Embassy spokesperson confirms a meeting took place Apr. 22.
Two days prior, Jonathon Azzopardi, president of Laval Tool & Mould Ltd. in Tecumseh, Ont., spoke in Ottawa at the first of three days of a House of Commons industry standing committee about the big hike.
He, along with other Windsor-area mould makers, were invited to meet with Hoekstra’s camp after they connected with local Conservative MPs.
“That was a big surprise,” he told CBC Radio Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge Wednesday.
“The U.S. did not waste any time in setting up this meeting. I think it’s important that we note that they set up the meeting.”
Azzopardi says Hoekstra came with a specific message, asking the industry to be vocal about what they’re experiencing.
“We talked about what a trade deal could look like, and nobody in the room could make a trade deal, obviously, but he came here to try and talk about what a deal would look like.”
Earlier this month, the White House quietly announced changes to tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper imports. They went from only applying to the metal segment of products to being put on the full customs value.
“I know it was choreographed. He [Hoekstra] pulled out a list, out of his right breast pocket, and it was one page of the ‘highest-ranking irritants’, he called them, between Canada and the U.S., and at the top of the list was U.S. alcohol on Canadian shelves,” said Azzopardi.
“I honestly think that … if Carney was in that office on Wednesday — and if Trump was in that office — I think you would have had a deal. The United States is ready to talk.”
Azzopardi’s company employs more than 100 people. He predicts similar-sized shops only have three to six months before they have to make what he calls the “toughest decision” of their lives.
The Trump administration announced last week it’s offering Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum companies immediate tariff relief if they move production stateside.
It’s something Azzopardi says he’s considering.
“I think it rings more true today than ever. As we wake up this morning, most companies are waking up to the their first invoices to that tariff that was released on Easter weekend.”
Even if it’s not a complete relocation, Azzopardi says other options are being explored, including upping their presence in the U.S.
“This is a systematic approach of getting companies to look at expanding outside of Canada, relocating to the United States. It’s a very strategic and well-thought-out plan.”
Windsor West Conservative MP Harb Gill, who was not invited to the meeting with Hoekstra, calls what the U.S. did by dramatically raising the tariffs on metals “absolutely unfair,” and says the Liberal government needs to act immediately.
“We have to offer some sort of support where they can keep body and soul together. If this does not get addressed sooner rather than later, we won’t have those people. And once these companies leave … they’re not coming back. That’s the challenge,” he said on Windsor Morning.
The vice-president of policy with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce says he’s concerned about the mould making industry — specifically in southwestern Ontario.
“Windsor is disproportionately impacted,” Vince Caron told CBC Radio’s Windsor Morning Wednesday.
“Immediate risk really. It also has ripple effects over the entire province because the companies here, they’re the tool makers. They’re the Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers.”
Caron says the large rise in tariffs undermines the entire North American economy.
“That’s not as an easy solution when you think of moving down to the U.S. The grass isn’t always greener. More than 100,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs have already been lost during the presidency of Trump since January of last year because tariffs are impacting the manufacturers over there.”
CBC News has reached out to the federal government for comment.
