How Canadian and American businesses can work together to fight Trump’s tariffs

It's the ride you can rely on every morning. Andrew Carter, CJAD 800. It's a TD minus two, a tariff day minus two. It's a Saturday, the 25% tariffs kick in, according to the latest from President Donald Trump.

One industry leader says that Quebec and American business communities have an interest in talking to each other to find a way to resolve the tariff conflict that's emerging. Veronique Prue is president and CEO of the Greg Manufacturers and Exporters Association. She was in Washington last week. Good morning, Veronique. Yes, good morning. I was with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, but I've joined the Federation of Chambers of Commerce over the past few months now.

Okay, so you're with the Federation of Chambers of Commerce. Exactly. Okay. But your goal is the same, obviously, right? Well, absolutely. The relationships between Canada and the U.S. is a priority for members. We represent both the chambers of commerce across Quebec, but we also have close to a thousand companies who are members, so they're large exporters, but also SMEs in every region. Okay. So, Veronique, tell me, what's the tone of the conversation between Americans and Canadians at this point?

Well, you know, when we went to Washington, we were meeting with various groups, associations, the U.S. chain of commerce and representatives, both from Congress and the Senate, Republicans, Democrats, American companies. And we were really going there to see how we could work together to make sure that the American companies speak up so we can hear their voice as they did through the first mandate, through the first Trump mandate. That's how they managed to influence President Trump.

Now, to our surprise, when we went there, we realized that no one wants to speak up. So the companies don't want to speak up, and they don't want their business associations to speak up either. So the strategy has really changed in the way they're trying to influence the president to avoid terrorists. So why don't they want to speak up? Are they fearful? Well, the president came in with a very strong mandate. And no one's against his economic agenda.

which is to reduce inflation, attract investment, and grow the economy. So when you're in the US, you really get that feeling of the America first. They all agree with that. Then, once again, the president surrounded himself with loyalists. So there's no one around him who can really influence or bring sort of more of that pragmatic approach to him. So there are a lot of concerns on how to do it, and companies are just comfortable speaking up now.

They are speaking to their elects, either governors, congressmen, or Senate representatives. But will their voice be heard? Will it get to the president? That's really the big question for us. So, Veronique, what do you think is going to happen over the next week or so? Well, we're pretty sure we're going to be hit by tariffs. Now, will it be 25% on everything? That would be surprising, because once again, he won't put in place measures that will clearly hurt his economic agenda. So, for instance,

25% on Albertan oil exported to the US. That would be very surprising. But we are expecting tariffs on what products to what extent no one really knows. But companies are getting ready, as are the Quebec and Canadian government, to be able to respond. What sectors of the economy of the Quebec economy would be hurt the most? When we look at our three top exporters from Quebec to US, we have aluminium, we have aerospace and critical minerals.

So these are three sectors, which actually the US is quite dependent on us because if we look at aluminum, they don't produce enough to answer their local demand. And in the conversations we had with them in Washington last week, we reminded them that the aluminum that is pretty simple back and shipped to the US goes in their beer cans and the auto sector in the defense sector. These are areas where they need us. When we look at critical minerals, it's the same thing. Canada can help secure the supply chain

their alternative is going to China. But once again, we're not, you know, we're very, when we speak to ourselves, between ourselves, we're really confident about the important importance of the trade relationship between our two countries. When you go to the US, you feel that there is, there is some disconnect, there is some difference. And we saw yesterday, there were comments that were made that is Canada stops, you know, secure as a border, secure as immigration, and make sure that no drugs are going through, they would reduce the tariffs.

So it's a very unpredictable situation. So on our side, this is why we've told the Quebec government, we have to be ready. You have to prepare some measures to help the companies should President Trump choose to go ahead with these tariffs. So there's 10 recommendations that we put forward to both the Quebec and the Canadian government. Which would include shoveling money their way? Well, the first thing is helping companies. If there are tariffs of 25%, there are some companies that will have to lay off some people.

They won't be able to check to the US anymore. So there will need to be some support in the short term to help with the employees and companies who won't have enough liquidities or cash. But then we really need to think longer term. So looking at our internal market, how can Canada reduce internal trade barriers? We've been talking about this forever. But we can see that the premier seem to be working together in that direction. So that's one thing. The second thing we can look at is public procurement.

If a Canadian company wants to sell to the US government or the French government, they need to invest in that country. They need to have a manufacturing footprint in that country. In Quebec and Canada, any company across the world can come, do business with their government, get a contract from the government, and they don't need to have any footprint. So there are things that, you know, what President Trump is doing is really bringing us to see the world differently, to see how we're doing trade differently,

And the Quebec government and Canadian will have to be ambitious and showing that there is a local market that they will protect their market. But we also need to look at diversifying our markets outside of the US because we are so dependent on it. Very good luck with this. Thank you very much.