Starting this past Tuesday, a 30-day delay was put into place for tariffs on American imports at the Canada and U.S. border. However, Canadian politicians are still on alarm, saying that they’ll take the 30-day breathing period. Among those, Member of Parliament Taylor Bachrach continues to reiterate that there’s a lot of work ahead.
“It’s a really difficult time right now for Canada. We’ve relied on our relationship with the United States for decades, we’ve had a free trade agreement together since the 1980’s and by enlarged we’ve had a very stable relationship that’s benefited people in both countries,” said Bachrach, who is an MP for the Skeena-Bulkley region.
“With the incoming President in Washington, that relationship has really been turned on its head. We may have a situation that is more unpredictable, and unlike anything we’ve seen for a long time. So the threat of 25% tariffs, if that became true, would be devastating for our economy. It would cost thousands of jobs, and would put us in a very bad situation. As much as it’s difficult to celebrate a postponement, the fact that there’s a 30-day briefing period is certainly better.”
And for Bachrach, he notes that he is witnessing Trump prioritizing The United States. But Bachrach says that there’s more undiscovered layers to President Trump’s negotiations, in order to put America first.
“Essentially what the President is saying is ‘America First, we’re going to pull up the drawbridge and try to go alone. We don’t need Canada, we don’t need Mexico.’ I think that’s foolhardy and most economists would say that that’s going to hurt Americans.
He thinks that there’s a broader, long term goal coming from down south.
“I’m not entirely sure if this is about tariffs. I think that this is the way that this particular President negotiates through this sort of irrational, unpredictable, shock-in-awe way of threatening other countries to try and gain some sort of negotiating advantage. I think that that’s something we need to be cognitive about as Canadians, and we need to make sure that it’s not something we’re overreacting to.”
According to Bachrach, this reality that Canadians face right now is not something to be unexpected when it comes to the President’s ways of negotiating. Back in Trump’s first term in 2016, tariffs were placed on some products like Canadian steel and aluminum.
“Canada had to fight those with countervailing tariffs on specific products and take some really targeted actions in order to get those tariffs lifted. So this is the kind of thing that he’s known for, and he’s signaled this in his inauguration speech. He’s also made some incredibly irrational and scary proclamations about our sovereignty and how he sees Canada as being absorbed into the United States.”
During this time, Canadians have made efforts to show their love towards the country. For example, Canadians might check where a product was made before making a purchase. Even in Parliament, there’s been “exceptional unity” between members of parliament, with a couple of exceptions.
“The silver lining in all of this, as everyone has remarked, is the fact that it does unify us and bring us together as a country and makes us reflect on what it’s like to be Canadian. I think people are more galvanized now in this tariff threat now than they have been in several years. So that’s good to see and we’ve talked about ways we can push back and of course it’s always a good time to buy Canadian, it’s always a good time to buy local. Those are some steps we can take as Canadians to make sure that our country is strong.”