Amid the threat of President-elect Donald Trump’s tariffs on both sides of the U.S. border, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has a message for Mexico.
“Mexico has a decision to make. Either side with China or side with Washington. Tell us what the Canadians are doing. They stand with Washington,” Ford said Tuesday. That night, he spoke in an interview with CNN.
Ford previously accused Mexico of becoming a “back door” for imports from China, including cars and other products, following the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (formerly NAFTA).
“Cheap Chinese products are going through Mexico. They put ‘Made in Mexico’ stickers on them and ship them through the U.S. and Canada, taking jobs from the U.S. and Canada.”
The prime minister’s comments come under President Trump’s continued threat to impose 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico until the two countries secure their borders from the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants.
On Tuesday, the federal government announced: Approach from five points It aims to strengthen border security, including detecting and interfering with fentanyl trafficking, new tools for law enforcement, enhanced operational coordination, enhanced information sharing, and minimizing the amount of unnecessary border crossings.
Ottawa earmarked $1.3 billion for the six-year plan in Monday’s fall economic report, but Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the plan had been in the works long before that and was not at Trump’s request. He said it was not created to respond to such demands.
At Monday’s meeting of premiers, Mr. Ford called on the federal government, including state leaders, to do a better job negotiating trade with the United States, and urged Ottawa to work with President Trump and South African lawmakers to do a better job negotiating trade with the United States. He called for the 2% NATO spending commitment to be met. Borders have been pushing for a long time.
Ford also said he wants to directly negotiate a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Canada.
Cutting off energy from Ontario to the U.S. is the ‘last thing’ Ford wants
Ford said last week that it was prepared to cut off Ontario-produced energy to 1.5 million U.S. homes if President Trump paid his taxes.
Ford insists it has “no intention of backing down” from potential retaliatory tariffs, but told CNN on Tuesday that shutting off power to homes in New York, Michigan and Wisconsin is “the least we can do.” “I don’t want to do that,” he said.
“We want to sell more energy to the United States, and we want to sell more critical minerals to the United States,” Ford said.
“Again, we are our closest trading partners, our closest allies. We do $1.3 trillion in two-way trade, which is more than Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and France combined. I just feel that we are not the enemy. In my opinion, the big problem is China.”
Ford also threatened to restrict the LCBO’s purchases of U.S.-produced alcohol, halt exports of critical minerals, and remove the U.S. from the state’s procurement process if President Trump follows through on his threats. He said he hopes he and all prime ministers will visit Washington in February after Trump takes office in January.
With files from Spencer Van Dyk and Mike Le Couteur
