Friday 28/March/2025 – 05:15 AM
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday that he would respond with trade measures that he did not specify if US President Donald Trump imposed new customs duties on cars that expanded the scope of a global trade war and severely harmed stocks.
Canada will respond to Trump customs duties
According to Reuters, Carney said that the measures that Canada might have had not yet been determined if Trump carried out his plan to impose new fees by 25% on imported cars and light trucks.
He added that he will respond next week, when customs duties enter cars and another set of customs duties exchanged on the United States’ trading partners into effect.
Carney said in a press conference: We will resist US customs duties with reprisal commercial measures on our part that will have the maximum impact in the United States and the lowest impact here in Canada, and European countries also threatened to respond.
Carney added that Canada will transform its economy to become less dependent on its southern neighbor, which has long been a close ally and an important commercial partner.
He said at the press conference: We will have to reduce our dependence on the United States, which may be difficult, as vehicles are the second largest exports of Canada in terms of value (after oil) worth $ 51 billion in 2023, of which 93% were issued to the United States.
Customs duties may add thousands of dollars to the cost of the average car in the United States, which contradicts the Trump electoral promise to reduce consumer prices.
Ford announced increases of up to 10% in the prices of cars sold in the United States, and other cars manufacturing companies also warned of the possibility of raising prices as well, and traders expressed their concerns about the loss of jobs.
Customs duties are a painful blow to some of the most important allies of the United States, and will be added to other trade sanctions imposed by Trump already.
Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Germany are the largest car suppliers to the United States, which amounted to $ 474 billion in 2024.
