Canada’s warning comes as the U.S. Congress begins debate on a once-in-a-generation reform of corporate taxes. Congress has tried a number of times to make reforms over the years and under different administrations.
With Republicans holding a majority in both houses of Congress, the GOP feels they will have better success in getting changes and reforms through this year. President Trump’s “protectionist policy” regarding keeping jobs in America, as well as his tough talk on adding tariffs to imported goods manufactured by American companies outside U.S. borders, has created tensions between Mexico and Canada.
Freeland told the Canadian press she doesn’t intend to carry a running debate over the issue, but she did use her trip to Washington to make sure that Canada’s views on the matter were made known up-front, particularly on the issue of adding tariffs to Canadian imports.
The Foreign Affairs Minister was quite blunt, saying she told lawmakers that if the final legislation included a tariff-like penalty on Canadian imports, Canada would retaliate. “I did make clear that we would be strongly opposed to any imposition of new tariffs between Canada and the United States,” Freeland told reporters.
In January, just days before Trump took office, Digital Journal reported on press secretary Sean Spicer’s comment when asked about his threat to tax goods manufactured by U.S. companies in Mexico and Canada. Spicer said: “When a company that’s in the U.S. moves to a place, whether it’s Canada or Mexico, or any other country seeking to put U.S. workers at a disadvantage,” then the incoming U.S. president “is going to do everything he can to deter that.”
Freeland says she left Washington feeling the issue was far from being settled, according to CTV News Canada, although she did say that after two days of meetings, she felt the situation held promise. One thing she would not discuss was the NAFTA trade negotiations, and this is understandable because key cabinet secretaries in commerce and trade have not been confirmed as yet.
“The conversation … is very much just at a beginning,” she said. “How it might work, and what it might include, and whether tariffs might be a part of it, is very much all under discussion. … All very, very preliminary. … So we do not know what the position of the United States might be.
