‘These tariffs are unjustified’: Smith stands with Trudeau amid U.S. trade war

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol (Todd Korol/The Canadian Press)

Premiers across the country, including Danielle Smith, are standing united against U.S. President Donald Trump as the country wakes up to a trade war.

Trump has implemented 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods and 10 per cent on energy, beginning Tuesday. His threat has been looming since he was inaugurated in January.

Smith spoke on American network CNBC Tuesday morning, saying Canada and its provinces have been “doing everything” to avoid this outcome.

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“To see this escalation is so disappointing, so damaging, initially, to American consumers and American businesses who buy Canadian goods and raw materials,” Smith said on CNBC.

“But then now, with the counter tariffs, it’s going to be also going to be harmful to Canadian consumers.”

Alberta impact

Last year alone, Alberta exported $156.3 billion across the border.

Last week, the province built its budget around looming U.S. tariffs. When delivering the budget, Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner said the government had factored a 15 per cent tariff, leaving room for uncertainty because of the province’s energy exports.

Smith has made several trips to Washington over the past month to convince U.S. lawmakers to consider standing down on a trade war. She has previously spoken about heeding Trump’s border security demands.

With Trump implementing the tariffs regardless of those efforts, Smith says the province has done its job to prevent fentanyl from crossing the border.

Alberta spent $29 million on strengthening border security at the Canada-U.S. border.

“We’ve addressed every issue that was raised about the border as issues have been raised, we’ve been solving them and yet new issues keep on popping up, which suggests that we’ve got a president that actually doesn’t want a deal, and that’s that’s a problem,” said Smith.

Smith says the country needs to be prepared that the tariffs could last longer than weeks or months.

“It might be a four-year problem and four years is a long time.”

A united front

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will “not back down” from the trade war, implementing retaliatory tariffs on the U.S.

Canada will proceed with imposing a 25 per cent tariff against $155 billion of American goods in two phases, Trudeau said in a statement on Monday.

Trudeau says the tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. withdraws from the trade war.

In January, Trudeau held a premiers meeting to discuss options to fight the tariffs. Smith attended remotely while on vacation and didn’t take part – refusing to sign a joint statement.

She later posted on social media that she cannot support the federal government’s plan if energy export tariffs could be a part of it. With tariffs now officially on the table, she’s standing united with the country, including Trudeau.

“I’ve had my own differences with this prime minister, but these tariffs are unjustified and we have to have a proportionate response. We are responding to an aggressive action by your president that this could have been avoided,” Smith said on CNBC.

Smith says she will have more to say to the province on Wednesday.

Oils and gas jobs at risk

The Canadian Association of Energy Contractors (CAOEC) says their members and employees are going to be the ones to feel the biggest impact and are bracing for what could happen.

‘It’s going to mean higher costs clearly for the industry, and to what degree that impact from unemployment is going to be, we’re still trying to analyze that,” said CAOEC CEO and President Mark Schultz on Tuesday.

Schultz says Trudeau’s retaliatory tariffs on the energy sector is the wrong move and will “intensify the pain and the pressure” the industry is under, specifically on employment.

“My heart goes out to those on the front lines because at the end of the day, these are really strong middle-class jobs that are on the line, and there’s going to be an impact on families. So we need to bind together,” he added.

In November, CAOEC projected some of the highest employment opportunities in more than 10 years with the oil and gas industry - 41,000 jobs for 2025. Now, they’re going to be at risk, Schultz said.

Doubling down on diplomacy by talking about pressures that U.S. consumers will be faced with and diversifying Canada’s markets away from the U.S. is the right approach, according to Schultz.

With files from CTVNews.ca and CTV News Calgary