(AFP) – For Canadians with jobs on the frontline of the tariff war, President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to end trade talks has intensified anxiety about their future — uncertainty that has become a daily reality. “You just don’t know anymore what’s going to happen day-to-day, week-to-week. There’s so much insecurity,” said John D’Agnolo, who leads an autoworkers union in Windsor, just across the US border.
Canada has been hit uniquely hard by Trump’s global sector-specific tariffs, given the interconnected nature of the North American auto industry and the importance of US buyers for Canadian steel and aluminum. Workers across Ontario have been closely following the news, in hopes of a breakthrough. Trump’s decision to shut down trade talks over an anti-tariff advertising campaign produced by Ontario’s provincial government — despite an apparently cordial meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this month — was yet another unsettling blow.
D’Agnolo told AFP he was “not shocked” by Trump’s sudden about-face, but still voiced amazement over what he termed erratic behavior from the president. “It’s a factual clip and he doesn’t want to hear it,” D’Agnolo said, referring to the ad that quoted former Republican president Ronald Reagan warning over the negative impacts of tariffs for the US economy. “It pissed (Trump) off, so therefore he’s going to pull a temper tantrum and say, ‘We’re not going to talk now.’ Like, who does that?” D’Agnolo said.
Ontario premier Doug Ford has agreed to pull the ad in question — but not until Monday, after it airs during the first two games of the World Series pitting the Toronto Blue Jays against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Even before Trump’s latest announcement, Carney has repeatedly cautioned that a deal to remove all auto tariffs was unlikely, with Trump repeatedly saying he wants cars made entirely in the United States. But the outlook has been more promising for metals. In Hamilton, Ontario — known as Canada’s “Steeltown” — workers have faced years of cutbacks as the global metals market has been flooded with cheaper foreign products. A stable relationship with the United States could help, but Hamilton union leader Ron Wells told AFP he doesn’t believe that is possible anymore.
“You can’t count on them (the US) as a trade partner because, you know, their leadership doesn’t always do rational things,” he said. After Trump posted on Truth Social that he had “terminated” all talks and vented fury at what he called a “fake” ad, Carney sought to de-escalate tensions. He said Canada would be ready to resume talks “whenever the Americans are ready,” but reiterated that economic relations with the United States have been fundamentally changed and that Ottawa needed to pursue new partners. Wells said he agreed with the prime minister. “Canada has to be independent of the United States when it comes to trade,” said the president of the United Steelworkers Union, Local 1005.
Western University political scientist Laura Stephenson told AFP that Trump’s outrage over the ad had likely left Canadians even more “exhausted.” But, she added, the US ending trade talks over a television ad may also mobilize more national support behind Carney, similar to the momentum that propelled his Liberal Party’s election win over a Conservative Party that some voters saw as too stylistically aligned with Trump. Canadians may “rally further behind what the prime minister’s trying to do,” she said.
Toronto resident Steven Polevoy told AFP that Trump’s latest move affirmed his lack of interest in fostering cross-border ties. “He has no relationship with us — he doesn’t want a relationship with us,” he said.
– Ben Simon and Jorge Uzon
© 2024 AFP
