More US tariffs on Canada

**Sarah Rogers** (0:01)
The US is hitting its neighbor Canada with 50% tariffs, but will the bill come back over the fence?

**Mark Carney** (0:07)
We will look at all options in terms of how we would respond if they do come into effect.

**Donald Trump** (0:12)
Without us, there's no way they can survive.

**Sarah Rogers** (0:16)
It's World Business Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Sarah Rogers. Also, why two giants of the weight loss world are heading to court? And we'll be hearing from the smallest nation to qualify for the World Cup on Broken Dreams and Big Spends.
Well, yes, after a short hiatus, it seems tariffs are back. Donald Trump is hitting his neighbours Canada with a 50% tariff on imports, including wine, cement and even hockey sticks. The reason, he says, the country has treated the US unfairly.

**Donald Trump** (0:55)
In all fairness to them, they need us to survive. Without us, there's no way they can survive.
But they've been very, very tough over a period of the last 50 years, actually.

**Sarah Rogers** (1:08)
Speaking from the Oval Office, he said Canada has taken advantage of the US for years. The tariffs are due to come in in 30 days. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney a little earlier said that he's looking at all options.

**Mark Carney** (1:22)
Look, we have a situation where the American tariffs, the 338 tariffs, will come into effect in 29 days. And we will look at all options in terms of how we would respond if they do come into effect. That's part of what we'll be discussing with premiers.
Also in parallel, as I just said, that I spoke with the president, we agreed to intensify discussions. We'll begin that right away. And this is part of the negotiations.

**Sarah Rogers** (1:50)
Well, Trump says that Canada has hit the US car industry with tariffs and quotas, which hasn't applied to other countries. And it says Canadians force US auto companies to invest in Canada. We asked Lukas Malinowski, president and CEO of Global Automakers of Canada, if that was true.

**Lukas Malinowski** (2:07)
Yes and no.
So it's important to remember that Canada did not impose tariffs on American built vehicles willy nilly. That was a direct response to the US imposing 25% tariffs on vehicles manufacturing Canada, as well as Mexico coming into the US in violation of the existing trade agreement between the three countries. So as a response, Canada also applied counter tariffs on US made vehicles coming into Canada, which is not insignificant. Canada is actually the largest export market for US made vehicles. So it's important to remember the facts and that Canada did not move unilaterally.

**Sarah Rogers** (2:43)
Well, several key exports though will be spared, including energy, critical minerals and fish. Alcohol isn't, though, in businesses like Lauren Skinner-Bukiciewicz's winery is facing consequences. Painted Rock Estate Winery in British Columbia was working with an importer in California.

**Lauren Skinner-Bukiciewicz** (3:01)
We're just really cracking into the US market. It's somewhere that we've been working really hard to build consumers. We have great relationship with our importer there. They really started to cultivate a market for Canadian wines, particularly small businesses and small wineries. And they function to offer the wines direct to consumers. So that's been really a special way for us to connect with both consumers that we meet in our tasting room and consumers that may find us organically and right in the face of that, we're landed with 50% tariffs, which make it really challenging to capitalize on that opportunity and really try to, you know, broaden that market outreach that we've been working so hard on. So really it's going to be yet another waiting game, yet another, will this change, will it not? It's, we're going to be sitting back and taking a backseat to that market and deciding, you know, if and when something changes, whether we can pursue it again and whether it will be deciding the same thing. Unfortunately, I could never expect them to be able to do business in that kind of environment.

**Sarah Rogers** (4:02)
Well, that from Lauren Buksevich. Joining me now is Craig Peters, who's owner of Maverick Distillery. He makes whisky just outside of Toronto.
Craig, you feel very differently to Lauren about that, don't you?

**Craig Peters** (4:15)
Yeah, I certainly do. I mean, the alcohol industry tends to be very resilient. We've been benefiting from the silver lining that our Premier Ford has created by launching back at the US with counterterrorists, essentially banning all American products on the shelves of arguably the world's largest buyer of alcohol, the LCBO in Ontario.
So as a result, you know, and just I guess the bitterness and the hostility that's been building over this sort of tariff war battle, because it's been affecting so many industries, there's a huge outpouring of local support. So our industry, the local wineries and distilleries have just been growing immensely from this. So we're actually seeing our sales up roughly around 100% on the year. So we're hiring, we're investing in new equipment, more automation. It's been a tremendous boost for our local industry. And even as of yesterday, our premier suggests that there's no way he's going to back down to the White House over this latest 50% tariff threat. So it looks like we'll have a good run for a while yet. And while we don't wish the tariff wars to continue, it's obviously it's very good for certain sectors, but obviously very tough for others. We're just lucky to be on the right side of the coin.