Labour minister optimistic Canada's message to U.S. on tariffs 'is getting through'

As U.S. Donald Trump's tariffs continue to loom, federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon says the federal government is working to make sure they do not happen.

MacKinnon was in Windsor, Ont., on Thursday for meetings with workers.

The threatened tariffs on most goods have been paused until March, but Trump has also threatened 25 per cent tariffs on vehicles going into the United States starting in April, a major concern for workers in Windsor's auto sector bracing for impact.

"I'm here to hear from business people, to hear from working men and women, their union representatives, and of course, I speak to union representatives at the national level too," MacKinnon told CBC Windsor, pointing to the "obvious concern" people have about the tariff threats.

"What I tell them is that our first job as Canadians is to make sure that these tariffs don't happen," he said. "We continue to work every day, with ministers and their counterparts in the United States, with people in Congress and the Senate and so on, and there's good reason to believe that our message is getting through.

MacKinnon said tariffs, if imposed, would hurt Americans and that Canada will retaliate. 

"As any auto worker in this community knows: when you disable the supply chain in the way that tariffs would, that will cause major pileups in terms of these factories, in terms of the cars that go back and forth across the Mexican border, [the] Canadian border," he added.

On Feb. 3 Trump paused his plan to levy tariffs on Canada for at least 30 days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a series of commitments to improve border security.

"The tariffs … will be paused for a 30-day period to see whether or not a final economic deal with Canada can be structured," Trump said at the time.

Since then, Trump has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, including from Canada, that will begin in March and has threatened auto tariffs that could begin in early April. 

MacKinnon said Ottawa continues to remind Washington about the paralyzing effect tariffs would have on Americans, "and we hope that common sense will prevail."