“Canada – USA Tariff Wars”

OTTAWA – In a week that saw Toyota announce it’s moving some production from Mexico to the U.S., and a new KPMG survey finding four in 10 Canadian manufacturers have moved operations to the U.S. or are planning to do so, an international trade lawyer expects bigger manufacturing moves like Toyota’s on the horizon for Canada.

On Monday, Toyota said it will build a new US$3.6B plant in San Antonio, Texas, and move some production of its Tacoma pickup truck out of its Mexico plant over a four-year period.

U.S. President Donald Trump credited his country’s tariffs for the move, musing that it will be the largest car plant in the world.

In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy famously said, about the U.S.-Canada relationship, that: “Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies.”

Fast-forward 65 years, and Canada and the United States are still neighbours, partners and allies. It just doesn’t feel like they are good friends right now. In some ways, the relationship feels less like a friendship than a very long marriage under strain. One partner is angry, the other partner distracted. Both are still deeply tied together by shared interests and a future that cannot easily be separated.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Ontario to Michigan will open July 27, the federal government has confirmed.

Canada and Michigan agreed on Friday to open the bridge with the support of the United States government, according to a news release issued just after 7 p.m. ET by the Department of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities.

“To support this opening and ensure that benefits are felt on both sides of the border, Canada and the United States have agreed to a series of co-operative measures focused on toll governance and transparency,” the release said.

This week I sat in a hearing room in Washington while officials of the United States weighed whether to place new tariffs on Canadian goods. I returned home sickened by what I saw. American companies stood up, one after another, and asked their own government for trade vengeance against foreign competitors, dressed in the language of a forced labour proceeding. Across three days of hearings, I was the only witness with a Canadian connection to appear. No one came on behalf of the Government of Canada. The invitation for a Canadian chair sat empty.

U.S. Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney proposed legislature Monday which she says would “hold Canada accountable” for “unfair” provincial limits on importing American alcohol — which were made in response to the trade war and tariffs launched against Canada last year.

The Combating Attacks on our National Alcoholic Drinks by Allies (CANADA) Act states that under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act, the legislation would direct U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and his office to investigate Canadian provincial liquor board restrictions on the import and distribution of U.S. products within 30 days, if made law.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says the Trump administration has not met with Alberta separatists, nor discussed any potential financial support for an independent Alberta, directly contradicting claims made by prominent separatists.

“No, we’re not meeting with the separatists and strategizing this at all,” Hoekstra told Global News.

OTTAWA – Days after the Trump administration decided to require annual reviews of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement instead of renewing it in its current form until 2042, the Canadian government says significant uncertainty remains over the next steps in trade negotiations.

“We don’t have any more predictability about the annual review process because this is somewhat uncharted territory. It’s not typical for this kind of agreement,” Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a telephone interview Friday.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra’s speech at his Fourth of July party in Ottawa included a political nudge aimed at Canada, with American F-35 fighter jets flying over the crowd and a comment about some provinces’ bans on American booze.

Hoekstra set a goal on stage outside his official residence to get American liquor back on Canadian shelves by his next Independence Day party.

“Next year, hopefully we can all take a toast of American bourbon legally in the province of Ontario,” Hoekstra said. “And toast the friendship and the relationship between the United States and Canada.”

For months, policymakers, businesses and trade watchers in Washington had been bracing for a turbulent spring and summer around the future of the USMCA, the trade pact binding the United States, Canada and Mexico.

But, to quote former UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, “Events, dear boy, events.” The war with Iran has dominated Washington’s attention, stripping away much of the political heat that was expected to surround the pact’s renewal.

The U.S. envoy to Canada says 14 months of trade talk between Canada and the Trump administration has resolved few issues, but insists the Americans will keep talking in the hopes of striking an agreement on the future of CUSMA, as well as settling other issues.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra made the remarks on CBC’s Ottawa Morning, where he was asked by host Rebecca Zandbergen how far apart he believes Canada and the United States are on settling the trade irritants that are frustrating a renewal of CUSMA.