With the latest round of tariffs from the White House last week, Canada’s auto workers remain on edge. Even with the reprieve for some parts that are compliant with the U.S.-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement, the industry and thousands of jobs are still grappling with President Donald Trump's 25 percent tariffs. Prime Minister Mark Carney has launched reciprocal tariffs on U-S autos exported to Canada.
One of the first blows was to Chrysler parent company Stellantis, which is shutting down its Windsor, Ontario assembly plant for two weeks. That came within hours of Trump’s announcement on auto tariffs. Workers at the plant are now facing an uncertain future.
Flavio Volpe is with the automotive parts manufacturers’ association. He said a two-week shutdown is dramatic.
“That’s not normal. There’s no normal explanation for that. The plant’s shut down because those cars sell to Americans, and they’re not sure how to do that in this environment. And that plant shut down, and there are several thousand employees at that plant who are on temporary layoff, and another nine hundred in the US. And there are over ten thousand parts supplier employees who’ll be standing down at the same time, about half of those in Michigan,” Volpe said.
To blunt some of the effects those tariffs will have, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa would fight back, imposing a 25 percent tariff on automobiles made in the U.S. that are not compliant with the free trade agreement, the USMCA. The revenue from those tariffs Carney said, will be used to help Canadian auto workers.
“Around eight billion dollars before remission will go directly to our auto workers and the companies affected by those tariffs,” Carney said.
Brian Kingston is the president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association, he says balancing the tariffs is a difficult task.
“So, it’s a rather complicated structure, but we’re encouraged by it because the last thing we want to do is damage manufacturers who are already under fire from the US. If we then hurt the vehicles that they sell in Canada, it will be doubly damaging. We’ve got to support them; we’ve got to keep the footprint in this country,” Kingston said.
Supporting the auto industry in Canada has become one of the main priorities of the federal government, including Industry Minister Anita Anand.
“We’re going to put in place a framework. We call this a remission framework to ensure that auto producers can have relief as long as they maintain production and investment in our country,” Anand said.
Anand also says the auto makers aren’t going to pull up stakes and relocate to the US, as Donald Trump wants.
“Every one of the auto manufacturers has indicated to me that they do intend to stay in Canada, they do intend to produce in Canada, and that they want to work with the government of Canada to ensure that that continues to be possible,” Anand said.
Anand says the remission framework is not only aimed at short term support needed for automakers, but also for long-term retention of the entire industry in Canada.
