While U.S. President Donald Trump’s team indicated Monday that he would not hit Canada with damaging tariffs on his inauguration day, Canadian politicians and business groups are warning that tariffs may still loom on the horizon.
“Everything will be decided, and it will be decided over the next four years,” Liberal MP John MacKay, co-chair of the Canada-US Parliamentary Group, told The Canadian Press.
“We need to be prepared in the event that tariffs are imposed, and I would say Canada is prepared,” Trade Minister Mary Ng said.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said he believes Trump is serious about eliminating the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, and that tariffs remain a real risk.
“I’m not saying we won and it’s over with Mr. Trump,” he told reporters. “It might happen tomorrow morning.”
In November, Trump threatened to impose sweeping 25% tariffs on Canada in an executive order on his first day back in office.
But shortly before Trump was sworn in on Monday, a new White House official, who insisted on remaining anonymous, pointed reporters to a Wall Street Journal report that said Trump intended to sign an executive order to launch an investigation into alleged unfair trade and currency practices. By Canada and Mexico. And China.
Tariffs were not mentioned in the first list of priorities released by the White House hours after Trump was sworn in.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly said Canada is prepared to respond with countermeasures if Trump follows through on his threat of tariffs. He issued a statement congratulating Trump shortly after he was sworn in, but did not specifically mention the tariffs.
“We are stronger when we work together, and I look forward to working with President Trump, his administration, members of the U.S. Congress, and officials at the state and local levels to deliver prosperity for our people — while protecting and defending the interests of Canadians,” Trudeau said in the statement.
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Two federal government sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the details of the federal anti-tariff plan, said Ottawa was waiting to see what Trump would do before revealing its response.
The federal government has promised to pump $1.3 billion in new border security resources over the next six years in hopes of convincing Trump not to impose tariffs. Trump initially linked the tariff threat to concerns about border security, but later appeared more concerned with the trade imbalance between Canada and the United States.
As Trump began his second term as president, federal cabinet ministers gathered in Montebello, Que., for two days of meetings to talk about the tariff threat.
Prime Minister Trudeau met with the country’s 13 prime ministers last Wednesday to discuss potential retaliatory measures. At the end of those meetings, he and 12 prime ministers issued a statement pledging to present a united front to their American counterparts.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith chose not to participate, saying she could not support any retaliation plan involving actions affecting oil and gas. In a statement published on X on Monday, Smith said that despite the “promising news,” the threat of tariffs “remains very real” and Canada needs to focus on diplomacy and abandon any further talk of retaliatory measures.
She said in an interview with The Canadian Press that the apparent cessation of tariffs is “an acknowledgment that we have such an integrated economy that any step has to be made thoughtfully.”
Legault said his government did not rule out retaliatory measures, including export tariffs on products such as hydropower. He said his county would also be ready to provide assistance to affected businesses, as it has done for businesses during the pandemic.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday that Trump’s tariff threat still needs to be taken seriously.
“It adds more uncertainty, (saying) ‘Maybe I won’t do it today, I will do it tomorrow.’” Maybe I will do it in a month. “It doesn’t help,” Ford told CityNews. “So we will take it seriously.”
Goldie Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, said Canada has been granted a reprieve but it remains unclear what the outcome of the investigation the Trump administration plans to launch will be.
“If it comes back and the administration raises the need to impose those tariffs, we still have to be prepared,” he said.
“The gloves are off on ice today,” but the business community remains “on high alert,” said Candice Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
The head of Canada’s largest private sector union said she’s skeptical of reports that Trump won’t go ahead with tariffs immediately, given the way he imposed tariffs during his first administration.
“No one should breathe a sigh of relief at all right now,” Unifor President Lana Payne said.
A new poll suggests there is limited support for Trump’s threatened tariffs among Americans.
A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that nearly half of American adults opposed imposing tariffs on all goods imported into the United States from other countries — more than were supportive or neutral on the issue.
—With files from Dylan Robertson and Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington, Morgan Lowry in Quebec and from the Associated Press
& Edition 2025 The Canadian Press
