Sault Ste. Marie MP and all-party parliamentary steel caucus co-chair Terry Sheehan says that partisan politics have no place in the ongoing trade battle between Canada and the United States when it comes to the “punitive, unfair, unjust tariffs” from Canada’s neighbours to the south.
Sheehan - addressing a crowd during a breakfast function hosted by Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce Thursday - says that a “special, urgent meeting” with Canada’s standing committee on international trade took place Tuesday.
“We had gathered a bunch of witnesses to listen to what the pending impact of what the Canadian counter tariffs would be on the Americans,” Sheehan said. “...it’s not good to be quite frank.”
Sheehan says that he heard a overwhelming urge to retaliate against the United States.
“The number one thing that people had told me was that they expected us to retaliate, and retaliate strong,” Sheehan said.
Countermeasures to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum - slated to go into effect July 1 - make up Canada’s “strongest retaliatory measures since the Second World War,” Sheehan said.
This past Friday, Sheehan stood up in the House Of Commons, calling for entire house to stand together on the country’s retaliatory measures against the U.S.
“There was a bit of that negativity in the beginning, but by Monday a lot of the negativity was gone,” said Sheehan. “People said, ‘no, we need to stand together.’”
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called in all CEOs impacted by the steel tariffs - including the CEOs of Algoma and Tenaris - to talk about the tariffs during a “very long meeting,” Sheehan told the crowd.
“We know the issues, the seriousness of the tariffs, and how they’re going to intentionally end up hurting the workers,” Sheehan said. “What we need is supports in the short term for anybody that is affected - opportunities for training, retraining.”
Earlier this week, Sheehan stated that the federal government now must retaliate, dollar-for-dollar on steel and aluminum.
“It’s really important for us to amplify the noise...and the perils of these tariffs,” he said.