Automotive News Canada - June 2018 - v2 - 11

* JUNE 2018

Will Trump use autos to take revenge against Trudeau?
FOR MOST OF DONALD
Trump's U.S. presidency, you
could be forgiven for thinking
that Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau genuinely liked his
American counterpart.
Trump once said that
Trudeau "is doing a spectacular
job," while the prime minister
once praised Trump for being
"authentic" and for carefully
considering his options and
being open to changing his
mind on important issues.
It always seemed odd that
Trudeau and Trump, leaders
with very little in common in
both policy and personality,
maintained a largely friendly
public relationship. But it made
sense: Canada and the United
States are close allies and
trading partners, and it was
perhaps in Trudeau's interest to
flatter Trump as a way to get
the famously ego-driven president to listen.

FROM TORONTO

how he has handled things to date," Williams
said at the Automotive Conference and Expo
in Niagara Falls, Ont. "He hasn't taken the
bait on a lot of things that would be easy for
him to jump into and criticize the U.S. He's
kept a very even-keel approach."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received
wide support in announcing retaliatory
action against U.S. steel and aluminum
tariffs. That will be incentive to stand his
ground on other issues, possibly putting
the auto industry in Trump's crosshairs.

WHAT ELSE WILL TRUDEAU PUSH BACK ON?

F I L E P H O TO S

Association, characterized the Trump-Trudeau
relationship for its smoothness.
"I give the prime minister full credit for

But now that the relationship has hit a
rough patch, it will be intriguing to see how
Trudeau handles other areas of potential disagreement with the White House. For
instance, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency was set to relax Obama-era fuel economy standards. Canada has historically followed the U.S. lead on vehicle emissions, but
the newly antagonistic relationship between

Trump and Trudeau could make the prime
minister more inclined to fight the White
House. Factor in the pressure Trudeau faces
from those in his Liberal base upset with his
handling of the Trans Mountain pipeline, and
a new battle between the two leaders doesn't
seem too far-fetched.
Williams said he hopes the Trudeau government will follow the United States in whatever direction it might take on emissions.
"You have to have a harmonized market
for the benefit of consumers," Williams said.
"We'd like to see the Trudeau government
recognize that the EPA is moving off of this,
that this may not have been our first choice,
but let's open up the discussions on what
harmonization might look like." - ANC

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JOHN IRWIN

COMMENT
That all changed when the
Trump administration, in the
middle of renegotiations of the
North American Free Trade
Agreement, slapped tariffs on
steel and aluminum from
Canada, Mexico and the
European Union after previously
exempting them. The administration cited U.S. national-security interests for the tariffs.

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OTTAWA RETALIATES

That proved to be too much
for Trudeau and the federal
government, which retaliated
with its own tariffs on U.S.
steel and aluminum.
"The idea that we are somehow a national-security threat
to the United States is, quite
frankly, insulting and unacceptable," Trudeau told NBC News
in early June.
When Trudeau reiterated at
the recent Group of Seven
meeting in Quebec that
Canada would not stand idly
by, Trump fumed on Twitter that
the prime minister was "very
dishonest & weak."
Subsequently, two of Trump's
top advisers accused Trudeau
of stabbing the president in the
back, a crime for which he
apparently deserved "a special
place in hell."
As of press time, it was
unclear how the situation
between the United States and
Canada would resolve itself
with regard to tariffs and
NAFTA, both of which have
massive implications for
Canadian auto manufacturing
and vehicle pricing.
What is clear is that things
changed quickly, as is often the
case with the Trump administration. Just a couple months
ago in April, I was struck by
how Huw Williams, public-affairs director for the Canadian
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - June 2018 - v2