Amid a protracted trade war with the United States, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada shouldn\u2019t settle for a deal that includes sectoral tariffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would seek a tariff-free deal,\u201d Poilievre told CTV\u2019s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday, when asked whether he would accept a deal from the Americans that includes a base level of tariffs on sectors like steel, aluminum and autos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to have that privileged access to the American economy, and in exchange for that, we could provide more continental security that would make both our countries more secure and stable,\u201d Poilievre added. \u201cThat\u2019s the deal that I would go for.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump launched the trade war in February, when he implemented sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods. He\u2019s since carved out an exemption for imports that are compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s also set out to fully transform America\u2019s global trade regime, imposing significant sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and copper. Those levies are stacked on top of any import taxes aimed at specific countries, such as Canada.<\/p>\n
Canada and the U.S. have been in ongoing negotiations for a new economic and security deal for months, with Prime Minister Mark Carney and his team insisting they\u2019re prioritizing getting the \u201cbest deal\u201d over a timely one.<\/p>\n
Late last month, Carney announced that Canada is dropping many of its counter-tariffs by exempting goods covered by CUSMA. Asked by reporters at the time whether Trump had assured him the move would help spur negotiations, the prime minister said \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the key back home, though, is to become more self-reliant, strong and stand on our own two feet, so that we have the leverage to negotiate,\u201d Poilievre told Kapelos, blaming Liberal environmental policies for Canada\u2019s over-dependence on the U.S., and adding Prime Minister Carney has \u201cunfortunately negotiated out of a position of weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poilievre pointed to what he\u2019s called \u201canti-development Liberal policies,\u201d such as the oil and gas sector emissions cap, the industrial carbon tax, and Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, which many Conservatives have dubbed the \u201cno more pipelines act.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were building pipelines and port expansions and moving our resources to the Pacific and the Atlantic to faraway markets, then we could go to the Americans with the ability to say we have other options,\u201d Poilievre said.<\/p>\n
When pressed, however, on the mercurial nature of the U.S. president and whether it\u2019s fair to blame the Liberal government for the state of negotiations, when Trump\u2019s expressed purpose is to target investment, Poilievre said Canadians should \u201chold Mr. Carney to the standard he set for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he\u2019d have a deal with Trump by July 21, (and) still no deal,\u201d Poilievre said. \u201cHe said that he would put elbows up, he put elbows down. He said he could handle Donald Trump, and all he\u2019s done is make concession after concession.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the counter-tariff carveout, Canada has made other concessions in the negotiations with the American administration. For example, Carney scrapped the controversial digital servicestax, which Trump vehemently opposed.<\/p>\n
Poilievre says Trump \u201csmells weakness\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n
When pressed on what he would do differently if he were prime minister \u2014 for example, by implementing dollar-for-dollar tariffs or increasing sectoral tariffs on aluminum to match those of the U.S. \u2014 Poilievre said he would pass his proposed Canadian Sovereignty Act.<\/p>\n
The plan calls on the government to \u201crepeal the Liberal growth-blocking laws,\u201d such as C-69, the industrial carbon price, and the oil and gas sector emissions cap, and \u201creward those who build,\u201d in part by eliminating the capital gains tax on businesses that reinvest in Canada.<\/p>\n
And when pressed again on the similarities of that proposal to the Liberals\u2019 recently passed Bill C-5 \u2014 dubbed the Building Canada Act, aimed at giving government sweeping new powers to approve major projects \u2014 Poilievre insisted \u201cLiberal laws and Liberal bureaucracies\u201d are getting in the way of development.<\/p>\n
Poilievre, in his interview, also discussed the size of the public service \u2014saying there should be \u201cbillions of dollars\u201d in cuts to the federal bureaucracy \u2014 and his upcoming mandatory leadership review, about which he would not say whether there is a specific level of support he is looking to secure.<\/p>\n
You can watch Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre\u2019s full interview on CTV\u2019s Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid a protracted trade war with the United States, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada shouldn\u2019t settle for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-158927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}