A top Canadian lawmaker and candidate to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for a 100% tariff on Tesla vehicles in an effort to counter tariffs from President Donald Trump.
Chrystia Freeland worked as Trudeau’s finance minister until she resigned in January, now running to replace Trudeau as prime minister. The thrust of her economic policy urges Canada to inflict “the biggest trade blow that the United States has ever endured.”
“We are going to go after American stakeholders who matter to the White House,” Freeland told CNN this week. “I have proposed a 100 percent tariff on all Teslas. I am calling on all the countries that are affected by this tariff to join us, and our retaliation will target specific Trump constituencies.”
Freeland also targeted dairy farmers in Wisconsin, saying they are “important” to Trump.
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“”We’re not going to let them sell their products in Canada anymore,” she said.
Freeland’s threats come after Trump issued pauses on the tariff plans against both Canada and Mexico. Both countries agreed to some capitulations in order to stave off the tariffs and give time for further negotiations.
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Freeland’s call echoes sentiment from other Canadian officials as well. Canadian lawmaker Jagmeet Singh proposed that Canada should “fight back” against Trump’s tariff threat.
“Elon Musk has been very loud. Very vocal attacking our country. We’re not going to let that stand. So if you are going to take a shot at us, we’re going to fight back,” Singh told reporters earlier this week. “So Elon Musk thinks he can tweet off whatever he wants. Yeah, we’re going to put a tariff on him. I want that to be something that impacts him.”
CNN host Boris Sanchez spoke to Singh on Monday, asking about how Canadians feel about Trump’s talk of bringing Canada in as the 51st state. Singh noted that Canadians are known for being polite, but warned, “don‘t take our kindness for weakness” and said “hell no” to the proposal.
“I believe in being good neighbors and having good relationships, but I believe very firmly Donald Trump only understands force. He‘s acted as a bully in many circumstances, and now he‘s acting as an economic bully. The only language that bullies understand is the language of strength. So we have to show that we‘re ready to fight back,” Singh replied. “We might be smaller. We might be up against a larger opponent, but it‘s going to hurt both of us. It‘s a bad thing to do. It‘s going to hurt Americans. It‘s going to hurt Canadians. We need to show that it‘s the wrong thing to do, and also show that we‘re ready to fight back and defend what we have.”
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