P
PhoneyIommi
Banned
Well-known member
Tonight, first I want to speak directly to Americans. Our closest friends and neighbours. This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians. But beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people.
As I have consistently said, tariffs against Canada will put your jobs at risk, potentially shutting down American auto assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities.
They will raise costs for you, including food at the grocery stores and gas at the pump.
They will impede your access to an affordable supply of vital goods crucial for U.S. security, such as nickel, potash, uranium, steel and aluminum.
They will violate the free trade agreement that the president and I, along with our Mexican partner, negotiated and signed a few years ago. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago, geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.
That rang true for many decades prior to President Kennedy’s time in office, and in the decades since, from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours during the Iranian hostage crisis. Those 444 days, we worked around the clock from our embassy to get your innocent compatriots home.
During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California. During the day, the world stood still, Sept. 11, 2001, when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes. We were always there, standing with you, grieving with you. The American people.
Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world.
Yes, we’ve had our differences in the past, but we’ve always found a way to get past them. As I’ve said before, if President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us.
Canada has critical minerals, reliable and affordable energy, stable democratic institutions, shared values and the natural resources you need. Canada has the ingredients necessary to build a booming and secure partnership for the North American economy, and we stand at the ready to work together.
Let’s take a moment to talk about our shared border. Our border is already safe and secure, but there’s always, always more work to do. Less than one per cent of fentanyl, less than one per cent of illegal crossings into the United States come from Canada.
But hearing concerns from both Canadians and Americans, including the American president himself, we’re taking action. We launched a $1.3 billion border plan that is already showing results, because we, too, are devastated by the scourge that is fentanyl, a drug that has torn apart communities and caused so much pain and torment for countless families across Canada, just like in the United States.
A drug that we too want to see wiped from the face of this earth. A drug whose traffickers must be punished as neighbours, we must work collaboratively to fix this.
Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.
Tonight, I am announcing Canada will be responding to the U.S. trade action with 25 per cent tariffs against a $155 billion worth of American goods. This will include immediate tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods as of Tuesday, followed by further tariffs on $125 billion worth of American products in 21 days time to allow Canadian companies and supply chains to seek to find alternatives.
As I have consistently said, tariffs against Canada will put your jobs at risk, potentially shutting down American auto assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities.
They will raise costs for you, including food at the grocery stores and gas at the pump.
They will impede your access to an affordable supply of vital goods crucial for U.S. security, such as nickel, potash, uranium, steel and aluminum.
They will violate the free trade agreement that the president and I, along with our Mexican partner, negotiated and signed a few years ago. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago, geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.
That rang true for many decades prior to President Kennedy’s time in office, and in the decades since, from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours during the Iranian hostage crisis. Those 444 days, we worked around the clock from our embassy to get your innocent compatriots home.
During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California. During the day, the world stood still, Sept. 11, 2001, when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes. We were always there, standing with you, grieving with you. The American people.
Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world.
Yes, we’ve had our differences in the past, but we’ve always found a way to get past them. As I’ve said before, if President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us.
Canada has critical minerals, reliable and affordable energy, stable democratic institutions, shared values and the natural resources you need. Canada has the ingredients necessary to build a booming and secure partnership for the North American economy, and we stand at the ready to work together.
Let’s take a moment to talk about our shared border. Our border is already safe and secure, but there’s always, always more work to do. Less than one per cent of fentanyl, less than one per cent of illegal crossings into the United States come from Canada.
But hearing concerns from both Canadians and Americans, including the American president himself, we’re taking action. We launched a $1.3 billion border plan that is already showing results, because we, too, are devastated by the scourge that is fentanyl, a drug that has torn apart communities and caused so much pain and torment for countless families across Canada, just like in the United States.
A drug that we too want to see wiped from the face of this earth. A drug whose traffickers must be punished as neighbours, we must work collaboratively to fix this.
Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.
Tonight, I am announcing Canada will be responding to the U.S. trade action with 25 per cent tariffs against a $155 billion worth of American goods. This will include immediate tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods as of Tuesday, followed by further tariffs on $125 billion worth of American products in 21 days time to allow Canadian companies and supply chains to seek to find alternatives.
