Are we going to see a baseline tariff on Canadian exports to the United States? That’s what Prime Minister Mark Carney appeared to be hinting at last week when he told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting that it seemed inevitable.
“There’s not much evidence at the moment — from the deals, agreements and negotiations with the Americans for any country or any jurisdiction — to get a deal without tariffs,” the PM said outside Langevin Block in Ottawa.
Well here is Howard Lutnick the Commerce Secretary in Trump’s cabinet and the man charged with leading negotiations with Canada saying there is a way to not having a baseline. Lutnick was on Face the Nation on CBS on Sunday when he was asked specifically about Canada.
"We have a plan called USMCA, US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Virtually 75% of all goods coming from Mexico and Canada are already coming tariff-free," Lutnick said
"The president understands that we need to open the markets. Canada is not open to us. They need to open their market. Unless they're willing to open their market, they're going to pay a tariff," he added.
As the conversation went on and host Margaret Brennan pushed Lutnick, he explained that smaller countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and so on should expect a baseline, for the larger economies, it depends he said.
“The bigger economies will either open themselves up or they'll pay a fair tariff to America for not opening themselves up and treating America unfairly,” he said.
“If you're willing to open yourself up, and really open your economy to american business to ranchers fishermen farmers and businesses then of course we'll make a better deal.”
What will Team Canada do? Expect to hear some of that as the PM and Premiers from across the country meet in Huntsville, Ontario for the next few days.
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