By Promit Mukherjee
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will consider every kind of countermeasure if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump goes ahead with a threat to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian imports, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday.
Trump’s proposed move would be crippling for the economy, given Canada sends 75% of all goods and services exports to the United States.
“Nothing can be off the table if the U.S. continues to choose to move forward with these punishing tariffs,” Trudeau said after meeting the premiers of the 10 provinces to discuss potential responses.
Trudeau said any push back would be forceful and robust but declined to give details, given it was not yet clear what exactly Trump would do.
“I support the principle of a proportional dollar for dollar response,” he said.
Trump says he wants to impose tariffs to push Canada to tighten border security to stem the flow of illegal migrants and cut fentanyl smuggling, a move that would appear to violate a free-trade deal.
Earlier on Wednesday, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the flow of migrants and drugs coming from Canada is minute compared to the volumes entering the United States from Mexico.
Although Trudeau and the premiers in the room said the two levels of government were united, the energy-producing province of Alberta did not sign the final joint declaration released at the end of the meeting.
Alberta premier Danielle Smith, who dialed into the meeting, said she was opposed to the idea of curbing oil exports, a option that federal officials have raised.
The final declaration said if Ottawa did impose retaliatory measures, it would quickly provide money to Canadian workers and businesses help offset the damage done by Trump’s tariffs.
Trudeau announced this month he would be stepping down in the wake of a dispute with former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who quit in opposition to his proposals for more spending. She said Canada needed to maintain financial reserves to help offset the impact of U.S. tariffs.
Trudeau told reporters he would not be running again the next election, which must be held by Oct 20.
(Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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