Ottawa, ON – Shuvaloy Majumdar, Conservative Shadow Minister for Canada-US Relations, released the following statement on the Carney government’s failure to send a representative to argue against American tariffs:
“As the US administration considers slapping Canada with another round of tariffs, Canadians rightly expect their government to energetically defend our workers at every opportunity. That was supposed to be the Team Canada approach: use every relationship, every contact and every forum to put forward our country’s case for tariff-free trade.
“Unfortunately, Carney’s Liberals have decided there is one venue where they didn’t want to argue against tariffs: critical US hearings on imposing new Section 301 tariffs on Canada. Mexico sent a minister from their Ministry of Economy. Carney didn’t even bother to have a single representative show up to stand up for Canada. Instead, an incomplete two-page memo was filed a day before the hearing.
“Failing to show up and fight for Canadian interests is a pattern for the Liberals. Despite having obligations under international treaties to combat forced labour, during parliamentary committee proceedings, the Prime Minister’s Liberal MP appallingly challenged the facts of forced labour in the PRC’s automobile supply chain. It wasn’t a momentary lapse of judgment from a wayward MP, as one week later, Mark Carney defended his MP as holding ‘fundamental Liberal values, fundamental Canadian values.’
“The Prime Minister hasn’t been serious in banning products made with forced labour. His government has been in violation of the law, failing to table the ombudsman’s report for three straight years. Failing to uphold our commitment under the CUSMA agreement to prohibit importing goods made with forced labour can result in suspension of preferential tariff treatment, imposition of penalties and denial of entry of Canadian goods. We cannot allow Canada to become a market for illicit goods, as Liberals have allowed.
“These consequences have a real impact on workers already facing the brunt of American tariffs. But it’s not just his lax approach to questions of forced labour that places Canadian jobs at risk. The Prime Minister has taken a ‘wait and see’ approach over CUSMA, despite recessionary and flatlining economic growth, mass uncertainty and imposing a cost of waiting upon millions of Canadian workers and their families.
“Nearly 2.6 million Canadians rely on trade with our southern neighbour. Our workers, especially those in the steel, aluminum, auto and lumber sectors, can’t afford uncertainty and rhetoric for a deal they need now.
“It’s time to turn a year and a half of rhetoric into reality. Conservatives have a serious plan to do so by unleashing our resources, renewing our auto pact, building leverage, rebuilding our industrial base, attracting investment, confronting US tariffs and defending Canadian workers.
“Conservatives will defend our borders and our sovereignty from the PRC’s economic coercion and secure our country from forced-labour supply chains. We will protect our jobs, build our strength and deliver an unbreakable Canada abroad.”