North of the border there’s cautious optimism over the United States Supreme Court's decision Friday against President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but there are warnings from economic and labor experts about Trump’s newest threat of even more tariffs to reassert his trade pressure.
After the U.S. high court rejected Trump’s global tariffs, the president announced he would levy an additional 10 percent worldwide tariff, attempting to brush aside the significant blow to his economic agenda from the court.
Some experts in Canada are warning it’s too early to celebrate.
"What does this mean? What will the administration do next in the United States?" said Matthew Homes, Chief of Public Policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. "It’s pretty clear from the signals so far that they have a number of other mechanisms and the intent to continue on this tariff journey they’re on. So I don’t think this is the end of the never-ending tariff story for us, unfortunately."
In Ottawa, U.S.-Canada trade minister Dominic Leblanc said the court ruling upholds Ottawa’s stance that the tariffs are unjustified.
But that’s about as optimistic as he would go, adding most of the goods going to US were not affected by tariffs.
"What’s hurting the Canadian economy are the sectoral tariffs under a different American law," he explained. "So think of automobiles, steel, aluminum, softwood lumber. Those remain in place."
He said the focus remains on renegotiating the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement, which is coming up for review.
Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the U.S. Supreme Court decision is another important victory in the fight against Trump’s tariffs, but the battle isn’t over yet.
