B.C. Premier David Eby says the United States shouldn’t have access to Canadian mineral products if President Donald Trump plans to impose more punishing tariffs on other industries.
“We need to be frank with the Americans that they will not get the kind of access that they seek to what’s in Canada if this is how the conduct is going to go,” he said on Wednesday at a meeting of Canada’s premiers in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford joined Eby in his strong stance against Trump’s tariffs.
“Everything’s on the table,” Ford said. “We can’t keep rolling over for Donald Trump.”
Eby and Ford’s comments came in response to Trump’s announcement on Monday that he planned to impose an additional 50-per-cent tariff on a wide range of Canadian goods, in addition to the current 10- to 35-per-cent tariffs already levied on products ranging from potash to lumber.
Trump blames what he calls Canada’s “discriminatory treatment of American products.”
This latest tariff volley comes amid negotiations over the future of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, which America chose not to renew beyond 2036.
In his remarks in Charlottetown, Eby said that while Trump is imposing tariffs on important B.C. industries such as forestry, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra is actively meeting with mining companies and looking at opportunities to invest in Canadian mines.
“We can’t have a country on one hand attacking one group of families and workers while hoping to have access to the resources in Canada that the rest of the world wants,” Eby said.
One of the biggest of Trump’s “trade irritants” is provincial bans on U.S. booze. Eby said on Tuesday that B.C.’s ban on U.S. alcohol products in provincial liquor stores will stay in place.
Canadian alcohol is one of the targets of the new tariffs because of this ban.
B.C. Conservative MLA Ward Stamer criticized Eby’s approach in a CKNW radio appearance on Tuesday. He said he also discussed the topic with “high-level officials from the U.S. government” a couple of weeks ago.
Stamer said he thought the B.C. government ought to put U.S. alcohol back on the shelves as a measure of good faith, pointing out the danger to the B.C. wine industry if Trump enacts the newly planned tariffs.
“This is going to cost our wineries throughout British Columbia if those tariffs actually come into effect,” Stamer said. “That’s not what we need.”
Eby signed an agreement on Tuesday with eight other premiers to drop interprovincial trade barriers on alcohol sales to allow for direct-to-consumer purchases in an attempt to blunt the impact of Trump’s new tariffs without capitulating.
Jobs and Economic Development Minister Ravi Kahlon lambasted Stamer on social media for his comments, accusing the Conservatives of trying to sell out B.C. to Trump.
Black Press Media has reached out to Stamer for further comment.
Eby and the other premiers are scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday morning. The looming tariffs, set to take effect on Aug. 19, will likely top the agenda.
“This is just silly,” Eby said. “At the end of the day, the United States needs to decide what they want. Do they want a strong partner in Canada where we work together, or are they keen to go it alone?”