Canada’s Carney Puts Tariffs on U.S.-Made Cars as Stellantis Plant Pauses Production

Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada introduced a 25 % rate on cars and trucks made in the United States in retaliation for the rates that entered into force on Thursday morning on Canadian vehicles.

Hours before the rates imposed by President Trump entered into force, the Stellantis car manufacturer told the Union which represented about 3,600 workers in its minivan and muscle car factory in Windsor, in Ontario, that the plant would have closed on Monday for two weeks so that it could evaluate the effects of the rates.

Carney estimated that Canada would have collected about $ 5.7 billion from the retaliation rates, said it was imposing about $ 42 billion, said Canada would generate from the rates. imposed on March 4th. That money, said Carney, would help the workers and companies affected by the US rates.

“Let’s take these measures reluctantly,” Carryy said to journalists. “And we take them in expected ways and we will cause the maximum impact in the United States and a minimum impact here in Canada.” He added: “We can do better than the United States. Exactly where it comes out it depends on how much damage they do to their economy”.

The Canadian rates, said Carney, would exclude the car parts and the country would still allow companies that make cars in Canada to import vehicles built in the United States without inducing the rate.

Trump also imposed 25 % rates on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Cars and cars are the greatest exports of Canada by value in addition to oil and gas. Canada is the largest cars and truck importer made in the United States and car factories in Canada send 90 percent of their production in the United States. Above all, the car trade between the two countries tends to be balanced, even if in some years the United States have a slight surplus.

Few industries in Canada are as intertwined as the automotive sector with the United States. The integration began in 1965, when the countries entered into a car commercial agreement.

For this reason, James Stewart, the president of the Union Unifor Local which represents the star workers in Windsor, said that the two -week arrest would probably have led to layoffs in the US factories that provide the Canadian assembly line with the parties. He estimated that the American parts constituted at least half of the value of the minivans built with Windsor.

The production break, said Stewart, will cause problems in the United States.

“We are not a jurisdiction that has taken work from the United States,” said Stewart. “We have lost jobs on low payment jurisdictions just as they did.”

Carney, a former central banker of England and Canada, said that the rates announced by Mr. Trump on Wednesday “will break the global economy and negatively influence global economic growth”.

Carryy said he would try to assemble a “coalition of similar countries” in search of an alternative to the United States.

“If the United States no longer wants to drive, Canada will do it,” he said.

Carney later added: “The 80 -year period in which the United States embraced the cloak of global economic leadership, when it falsified rooted alliances in trust and mutual respect and supported the free and open exchange of goods and services, it is over. Although this is a tragedy, it is also the new reality.”