TRUDEAU: ANY NEW TARIFFS ''ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE'
Mar 02, 2018
By Bob Komsic
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Echoing the reaction of his foreign affairs minister, Justin Trudeau says Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on steel and aluminum are ”absolutely unacceptable”.
(CP/Reuters)
Speaking at a post-budget event in Barrie, the prime minister added if the U.S. president proceeds, as he’s expected to next week, that the trade restrictions will have ”significant and serious” economic ramifications on both sides of the border.
Trudeau says he’s brought the issue up directly with Trump before and will continue to do so but it’s not clear if he’s reached out since yesterday.
Meanwhile, Unifor, the union that represents 40,000 auto industry workers and thousands more in the steel and aluminum industries, says if Canada does not receive an exemption from the tariffs, Ottawa should withdraw from NAFTA.
European officials are mincing words.
German Social Democrat Bernd Lange, head of the European Parliament’s trade committee, says the U.S. has a trade model that dates back 200 years.
”With this, the declaration of war has arrived,” said Lange just before President Trump declared on Twitter that ”trade wars are good and easy to win.”
The head of the World Trade Organization says the agency’s ”clearly concerned,” adding a ”trade war’s in no one’s interests.”