National Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the American business community is also quietly pushing back against Trump’s tariff threats
“You’ve already head from a number of (Republican) senators, including (Iowa) Senator (Chuck) Grassley, who’ve raised concerns… about both the tariffs and the response from Canada.”
Grassley wasn’t the only Republican lawmaker to take to social media to question Trump’s eagerness to slap 25-per-cent tariffs on two of America’s closest allies and biggest trade partners.
“Conservatives once united against new taxes,” griped Paul.
Trump’s Republican Party holds slim majorities in both houses of Congress, but this doesn’t automatically give the president carte blanche to push his agenda through Capitol Hill.
Wilkinson said he hoped the current impasse would spark “some conversations” about making Canada’s oil infrastructure less dependent on the U.S. but added that any new pipelines would require the buy-in of provinces, like Quebec, that have previously opposed such projects.
Wilkinson said the American business community is also quietly pushing back against Trump’s tariff threats.
“I would tell you that every American business and every American business association that I have met with (agrees) that tariffs on Canada don’t make any sense from an economic perspective,” said Wilkinson.
“They obviously, though, need to be sensitive to the relationship that they have with the new administration, which is going to be in power for at least the next four years,” he added.
“Coming out publicly and berating the administration is probably not the right thing for them to do, and I think they they fully recognize that.”
Wilkinson said this could change, depending on how the next phase of Canada-U.S. negotiations plays out.
“I expect that if we do see this move forward in a less constructive manner, you will hear some of those voices start to be a bit more public.”
National Post
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