OTTAWA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has said that Canada and the United States are no longer trade partners as before even if the tariffs are removed.
As U.S. tariffs loom again, Wilkinson posted a video on his social media account saying that the Canadians have thought of the Americans as friends and partners with the fact that Canada has since 1988 had a free trade agreement with the Unites States.
"I don't think we are going back there even if the tariffs are removed," said Wilkinson.
The pending tariff order on Canada is 25 percent on all imports and 10 percent on energy products. Canada hit back with 25-percent tariffs on 155 billion Canadian dollars (107 billion U.S. dollars) worth of American goods. Both sides paused the tariffs for one month and Canada is left waiting to see what happens after one month.
"Canada is in a position to respond to the United States in a way that creates concern on the part of many Americans as to where we are going with this and brings the United States and the President back to the table," said Wilkinson.
He called on Canada to be more resilient vis-à-vis the United States on a go forward basis.
Wilkinson listed four strategies to implement: reducing interprovincial trade barriers; deepening trade ties with a range of other counties; debottlenecking the railways and ports to get products to other markets more easily; thinking about the energy infrastructure to ensure that Canada is not vulnerable with more exports to the world.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said tariffs would be levied Tuesday against Canada and Mexico, but the levels remained to be seen. ■
