B.C. Premier David Eby publicly addressed the threats of U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods for a second time in one day Monday afternoon.
Since Eby’s Monday morning appearance, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that after a call with U.S. President Donald Trump, the tariffs, which were set to go into effect Tuesday, will now be paused for at least 30 days while the two sides work towards a permanent deal.
Eby says the “profoundly awful and uncomfortable experience” hasn’t changed British Columbians’ relationships with individual Americans, but has changed business relationships with the U.S. “for the foreseeable future.”
He says the pause negotiated by the two nations’ leaders provides some room to prepare but doesn’t believe that Trump is dealing in good faith.
“We understand now, very clearly, the president’s intention, which is to make Canada the 51st state. And we know that our best defence against that is a strong economy where we can stand on our own two feet here in Canada and British Columbia, not dependent on a single person in the White House and the whims that may come,” said Eby.
He says he wants to take Trump at his word, but he’s skeptical that anything will change within the next 29 days.
“It’s hard to imagine that that’s the state of international trade right now, but it is.”
The events since the time that the tariffs were first threatened, Eby says, have already changed how British Columbians do business with Americans.
“Some of this is positive for B.C. companies to be looking at customers overseas, to be finding those customers, and to be trading with them, even though there’s some short-term pain and inconvenience and logistical problems to solve,” said Eby.
“Some of it is bad news: an already threatened forest industry hurt by soft lumber tariffs and low prices and forest fires and pine beetles. The reality of the impacts and the decisions by forest companies in this moment is that they don’t really know whether to put money in or how to invest, or whether they should invest and where they should invest. And so our goal for industries like forestry, mining, energy, and others, as well as manufacturing, will be to support them, to find those overseas markets, to ensure that stability.”
This is a developing story. More to come.