Ontario Premier Doug Ford sent an important message to Mexico while also laying down a marker for the incoming American president. In an early morning statement, Ford said that if Mexico can’t work on stopping cheap Chinese goods from flooding North America, we should kick them out of our trade deal.
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The statement was posted to social media at 7:30 a.m., giving an extra jolt to those who hadn’t finished their first cup of coffee.
“Free trade needs to be fair. Since signing on to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Mexico has allowed itself to become a backdoor for Chinese cars, auto parts and other products into Canadian and American markets, putting Canadian and American workers’ livelihoods at risk,” Ford said.
“If Mexico won’t fight transshipment by, at the very least, matching Canadian and American tariffs on Chinese imports, they shouldn’t have a seat at the table or enjoy access to the largest economy in the world.”
The statement was a warning from Ford to Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president who only took over last month. Ford expects her to join Canada and the United States in getting tough on China or be kicked out of the club.
It was also a signal to the incoming Trump administration that Ontario wants to be on the right side of the tariff wall.
While Ford was the one delivering the message, it should have been coming from Ottawa and the Trudeau government. While all focus is on Trump now, it was the Biden administration that put 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other products, urging allies to do the same.
It took the Trudeau government far too long to act in lockstep with our biggest trading partner but they finally, and reluctantly did. They should be signaling to the incoming Trump team that they are willing to play ball on beating China or we could end up hit with tariffs ourselves.
Given the track record of the Trudeau Liberals, it’s doubtful that they will act.
In 2018, then President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel which put Canadian jobs at risk. For a year before doing this, the Trump administration had been asking the Trudeau government to do something about Chinese products being dumped into Canada at cheap prices and then shipped south with a made in Canada label.
They didn’t act, they refused to act for more than a year. It was only when the tariffs were in place that the Trudeau government did anything.
It wasn’t countervailing tariffs from us on American goods that ended the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, it was dealing with the transshipment of Chinese goods through Canada.
Now the Americans, both the current Biden administration and the incoming Trump team have concerns about the transshipment of Chinese goods through Mexico.
“You look at Mexico, they’re importing cheap products, undercutting our hard-working men and women,” Ford said Tuesday morning at a news conference.
“They’re slapping a “Made in Mexico” sticker on and shipping it up.”
Given how inward, how protectionist, the American political scene has become, this is exactly the type of message that should have come from Ottawa. Instead, it had to come from Doug Ford.
The Trudeau government botched the tariff issue last time and they botched the renegotiation of NAFTA, seeing the US and Mexico sign a bilateral deal first. Thankfully, they won’t be in power too much longer, but until they are replaced in the next election, we need them to act appropriately.
Jobs are depending on it.