00:00We have some breaking news that's coming in.
00:08The US-Canada tariff war hits top gear.
00:10Canada Prime Minister says close ties with the United States are now over.
00:14He further says we'll restructure Canadian economy.
00:17The new Canada Prime Minister mulls talks with the United States President Donald Trump.
00:23So Mike Carney has said that the era of deep economic security and military ties between
00:28Canada and the United States are now over.
00:31And he said this yesterday after President Donald Trump announced steep auto tariffs.
00:36Trump's planned 25% levy on vehicle imports to the United States is to come into force
00:40next week and could be devastating for the Canadian auto industry that supports an estimated
00:45500,000 jobs.
00:51Shashank Mattu, my colleague, is joining me live on the broadcast with more details.
00:55Shashank, this comment that has come in by the Canadian Prime Minister, it doesn't really
00:59bode well for Canada and US ties.
01:01What can you tell us?
01:02Absolutely.
01:03I think this was the kind of statement that would have been unimaginable even a year ago.
01:08But now it seems all too commonplace in the Western world to be making statements like
01:12this.
01:13I think Donald Trump's tariff war as well as his position on the Ukraine conflict has
01:17led to a lot of European and Canada as allies to rethink their relationship with the United
01:23States.
01:25We recently talked about how the trust that existed between America and Canada as well
01:29as with Europe, for example, has been completely shattered by the actions of the Trump administration
01:33over the last two months.
01:34Many of them feel that the tariffs that have been levied by Donald Trump on the Canadian
01:41auto industry have been completely unprovoked and unjustified, and that's across the political
01:45aisle.
01:46It's become so unpopular that in fact, the Liberal Party, which is Mark Carney's party,
01:49was expected to be wiped out of the elections now that he might actually win because they've
01:53stood up to Donald Trump and they're pushing back against him.
01:55That's how unpopular Donald Trump is at the street level in Canada.
01:59And Mark Carney, of course, with his statement right now, saying that the era of deep security
02:02ties is over, is not only signaling this anxiety among Canadians about Donald Trump and their
02:08relationship with America, but he's also trying to score some political points because he
02:11knows that he's going into an election on April 28th and he wants to win that election
02:15and he wants to capitalize on what is his calling card, which is anti-Trumpism, which
02:19has become rampant in Canada.
02:21Right.
02:22Shashank, you know, he's also called the auto tariffs unjustified and he said that they
02:26were in breach of the existing trade deals between the countries.
02:29What countermeasures do you think you can see Canada taking at this point?
02:32Well, Chetan, one thing to understand is that when we say the Canadian auto industry and
02:37the American auto industry, it's actually one almost fused auto industry.
02:41It's literally the North American auto industry.
02:43In fact, when Donald Trump first proposed his tariffs on Canada, the automotive industry
02:48in America was up in arms.
02:49They were saying that look, we're already facing so much competition from China and
02:53you want to basically gut our industry by making sure that we have to migrate factories
02:57and labor and so on from Canada to American, to American soil that would take us years
03:02and billions of dollars and we will lose competitiveness.
03:04So that's where Canada is coming from by saying that these tariffs are unprovoked and unjustified.
03:10But yes, you're absolutely right that Canada has already spoken about inflicting economic
03:15pain on the United States.
03:17The European Union has also considered doing this.
03:19In fact, Donald Trump is aware of this threat and he in fact posted on Truth Social saying
03:23that look, if Canada and the European Union team up to post, to place economic pain on
03:27the United States, then they will also suffer greatly.
03:29So you're seeing these erstwhile allies trying to talk to each other as if they were very
03:33much trade enemies.
03:35Absolutely Shashank, thanks for bringing in that perspective on the story.
03:38Now the Canadian PM has said that the close ties with the US, Canada-US are now over.
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