Ford Calls for Tougher Retaliation Against US Tariffs
Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants Canada to retaliate against the US by taxing its oil exports or withholding them, following recent US tariffs on Canadian goods.
Ford made these comments on a Toronto radio show, stating that Canada must 'hit them hard' and make the US feel pain. He added that no options should be off the table.
The Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on about $29-billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend, prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to vow retaliation with counter-measures against US imports.
Ford's proposal to tax or withhold oil exports is not a new idea, but it has been met with skepticism by experts. Derek Holt, head of capital markets economics at Scotiabank, called it a 'veiled threat' and put the odds of Canada imposing export bans or quotas at negligible.
Heather Exner-Pirot, senior fellow and director of natural resources, energy and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said that shutting in oil production would be extremely damaging for wells and that an export tax would land on Canadian companies, not American buyers.