Tariffs and Trade Updates and Information, chambercheck.ca
Tariffs and Trade Updates and Information, chambercheck.ca
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The following column by Cambridge Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Greg Durocher appears in the fall edition of our INSIGHT Magazine.
Have you ever heard the phrase: “We’re stronger together”? I thought so because it’s a common mantra all successful campaigns, organizations and projects carry with them.
Right now, it is more important than ever that we remain together in support, in determination and in hope as the trade war with the U.S. drags on.
I have heard comments lately such as: “Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to ruin Canada”, and that he is “intentionally not working with U.S. President Donald Trump to solve the trade dispute” and that he is “delusional in his pursuit to move trade away from the United States”, or “He promised a pipeline a year ago and no construction of a line has started.”
I have a few questions for these folks. For starters, why would it benefit the PM to ruin the country he oversees? That’s like a president of a company “trying” to bankrupt his own company.
Secondly, do those people have their heads so far buried in the sand that they don’t remember that in 2016 Canada finally signed the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the EU and that it will eliminate 99% of the tariffs.
Since then, we have never really embraced that agreement, which is the largest single market trade agreement we have signed and now Canada is finally opening those doors. Perhaps this is something we can ‘thank’ our neighbours to south for inspiring us.
Intense negotiations required
As for the pipeline, hmm, you know I am reminded of a quote first written by author Maurice Switzer: “It is better to remain silent at the risk of being though a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.”
Creating a pipeline to carry natural gas or oil isn’t the same as someone running a hose to their neighbour’s house to connect them with water while theirs is on shutdown. It requires intense negotiations, which have already begun for a new pipeline in Western Canada, as well engineering progresses, and pathways prioritized.
We’ve already been sending millions of barrels to Japan via the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) in B.C., and for a little over a year have been sending LNG (liquefied natural gas) to Asian markets via the port in Kitimat, B.C.
While I will be the first one to call out stupid from our government, I don’t believe we have been unfair to the U.S. and haven’t been hiding from them and not negotiating. Here is why: more than 60% of the oil the U.S. imports comes from Canada. They need it and it’s not an option for them to lose.
Matt Randolph, better known as ‘Mr. Global’ on his popular YouTube channel, is an American oil and gas expert who consistently and emphatically states the U.S. must have our oil and if we replaced them as a customer, it would be a massive issue for our southern ‘friends’.
Also, about 60% of the aluminum the U.S. buys from us comes from Quebec, and they can’t build more smelters in their country to make it because they don’t, and won’t, have the hydroelectric power to fuel the process.
Trump doesn't accept advice
As well, uranium for U.S. nuclear hydro plants comes from Saskatchewan, and of course so does the potash for their farmers’ fertilizer.
And finally, nickel from right here in Ontario and a host of other rare earth minerals go into their aerospace industries and the making of electronic components.
So, when Trump keeps say he “needs nothing” from Canada, I’m not exactly sure what he is talking about because those specific products aren’t just ‘nothing’.
But how can Canada go back to the table and negotiate when Trump continues to publicly state claims that are fiction? The U.S. negotiators know we know that they need all these things from Canada, so therefore, it has not been Carney who is avoiding negotiations but Trump.
DJT knows nothing about trade and doesn’t accept advice, preferring instead to give orders which his ‘boot-lickers’ just follow. You can’t negotiate with that type of person, unless you can get him to admit he lied or didn’t understand, and this will never happen because Trump believes he is always right.
If he actually cared about the American people, we could just halt all exports of those products to the U.S. and by noon the trade war would be over. But we all know Trump would rather let his own country tumble before that happened. My concern is that we will try and cut a deal, but it won’t be a good deal for us, and we’ll pay for it forever.
However, I remind myself that Mark Carney receives his marching orders from a special advisory group of business leaders who have explicitly told him, “No deal is better than a bad deal.” |
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Brian Rodnick 320 October 23, 2026 |
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Greg Durocher 41 July 28, 2023 |
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Canadian Chamber of Commerce 24 January 29, 2021 |
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Cambridge Chamber 2 March 27, 2020 |
750 Hespeler Road Cambridge, ON N3H 5L8
Phone: 519-622-2221
Fax: 519-622-0177
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