U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has created a great deal of concern by claiming he will evoke a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada.
However, Christy Clark, former Premier of British Columbia believes such a massive trade tariff is unlikely. Clark, now an advisor at the firm Bennet Jones, was a featured speaker Tuesday at Agribition’s Grain Expo.
“President Trump is a very tough negotiator,” said Clark during an interview with Kevin Hursh of SaskAgToday.com. “I think he’s more focused on Mexico though, worrying that China has kind of evaded his trade aims and his tariffs by coming in through Mexico.”
Mexico had been accused of being a conduit for Chinese products into North America. It’s been reported Trump and Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum talked on Wednesday with Trump claiming Mexico agreed to stop migration through Mexico, but Sheinbaum said she told Trump that Mexico is already addressing the issues and has no plans of closing the border.
“There are certainly issues between Canada and the U.S. that we need to work on but ultimately we produce things that America needs and I think (Trump) will be very concerned, particularly when it comes to food,” Clark continued. “They don’t want to cause food inflation and if there’s a huge tariff put on everything from Canada you’re going to see food prices in the United States go up within days and I think President Trump is smart enough to know that’s very bad for him.”
With the amount of trade that goes back-and-forth between Canada and the U.S., Clark believes the border states likely won’t be in favour of a measure that would increase the cost of products such as potash. “It’s still a pretty integrated economy that we have. No one in the border states wants to tear any of that apart and I think they’re going to have a big influence in President Trump’s ear.”
