OTTAWA – As Canadians brace themselves for President Donald Trump\u2019s ‘Liberation Day’ of reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, one political leader in Canada believes it could spark the start of a new era of Canada-U.S. relations free of cross-border taxes.<\/p>\n
Maxime Bernier, who served as foreign affairs minister in former Prime Minister Stephen Harper\u2019s Conservative government and now heads the right-wing People\u2019s Party of Canada (PPC), told Fox News Digital in an interview from Halifax that it is ‘absolutely’ the time for Canada to remove all tariffs against the U.S.<\/p>\n
He said the 25% duties the Canadian government, under then-Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, imposed on the U.S. in early February to counter Trump\u2019s 25% tariffs against Canada ‘won\u2019t hurt the Americans \u2013 it is hurting Canadians.’<\/p>\n
New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement following his March 28 call with the president \u2013 the first contact between both leaders since Carney was elected Liberal leader by his party nearly three weeks before \u2013 that Canada would implement retaliatory tariffs in response to Wednesday’s U.S. ‘trade actions.’<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The PPC leader said that Trump should be told that ‘the real reciprocal response’ to tariffs is ‘zero on our side, zero on your side.’<\/p>\n
Bernier said that instead, Carney and his main rival, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, are being ‘fake patriots using a dollar-for-dollar trade war against Trump’ and telling Canadians: ‘That\u2019s the best thing to do.’<\/p>\n
‘We cannot impose counter-tariffs,’ said Bernier, who also served as industry minister in the Harper government. <\/p>\n
‘The Americans are 10 times bigger than us. We won\u2019t win a trade war,’ he said, underscoring that retaliation will lead to a recession in Canada.<\/p>\n
Former Canadian Conservative politician Tony Clement, who served alongside Bernier in Harper\u2019s Cabinet, told Fox News Digital that ‘from an economic point of view,’ removing Canadian tariffs ‘makes a lot of sense’ and ‘may come to that at some point, but the public isn\u2019t there right now.’<\/p>\n
‘From a point of view of the emotional wounds of Canadians created by Trump and his annexation talk and tariffs, I\u2019m not sure that a political voice would survive if it went down that public-policy route,’ said Clement, a former Canadian industry minister in the Harper government.<\/p>\n
‘The mood of the people is outrage. I\u2019ve never seen people in Canada this incandescently mad at the United States,’ he said, who is campaigning in the Toronto area for Poilievre’s Conservative Party ahead of the April 28 general election. ‘There is complete distrust of whatever Trump says because it can change within 24 hours.’<\/p>\n
He said that both Poilievre and Carney have highlighted the importance of removing ‘the specter of tariffs for a long period of time \u2013 if you can trust Trump to be a bona fide negotiator.’<\/p>\n
Eliminating Canadian tariffs, without a quid pro quo from Trump, could ‘show weakness to a bully,’ added Clement, who, prior to entering federal politics in 2006, served as a Cabinet minister in former Ontario Premier Mike Harris\u2019 Progressive Conservative government. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In the statement released following his recent conversation with Trump, Carney said that both leaders ‘agreed to begin comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately following the election.’ <\/p>\n
Conservative strategist Yaroslav Baran, who served as communications chief for Harper\u2019s successful Conservative 2004 leadership campaign, and director of war room communications for the Harper-led Tories during the 2004, 2006 and 2008 federal election campaigns, told Fox News Digital that under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), ‘trade in goods and services ought to be tariff-free’ between Canada and the U.S., excluding carveouts on the Canadian side for dairy, eggs, poultry and softwood lumber. <\/p>\n
However, Baran added that he ‘can\u2019t see the removal of all Canadian tariffs on U.S. products as long as the U.S. has tariffs on Canadian products.’<\/p>\n
Bernier acknowledged that while Trump\u2019s tariffs will hurt Canadian exporters to the U.S., ‘the solution is to have a more productive economy with real free-market reforms’ in Canada through such measures as lowering corporate taxes, promoting internal trade and fostering growth in the country\u2019s oil and gas industry, all of which are featured in the PPC\u2019s election platform that includes the establishment of a ‘Department of Government Downsizing’ to abolish ‘ideologically motivated programs that promote wokeism,’ not unlike the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n
The PPC leader also said that Canada should be willing to ‘put everything on the table’ under the USMCA ‘right now’ and before the trilateral trade deal is scheduled for a joint review next year.<\/p>\n
According to Bernier, that should include ending the ‘cartel’ of supply management that sets quotas and prices, and protects Canada\u2019s dairy, poultry and eggs sectors from foreign competition, which he described as ‘a communist system’ that finds Canadians paying twice the price of those agricultural products than Americans do in the U.S., and which also imposes duties \u2013 ranging from 150% to 300% — on U.S. imports of the same products beyond limits agreed to but yet to be reached under the USMCA. <\/p>\n
During the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2018 that led to the USMCA, the first Trump administration sought to have Canada\u2019s supply management system eliminated.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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