Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew reacts to threats of U.S. tariffs

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Manitoba’s premier continued to threaten retaliatory actions on Monday should the U.S. president move forward on his threats to tariff Canadian goods. The government is now actively looking for ways to keep government contracts out of the hands of American companies in Manitoba.

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“Again, we have no quarrel with the American people, these are our friends, these are our relatives,” Premier Wab Kinew said on Monday morning, as he kicked off a meeting with Manitoba’s newly-formed U.S. Trade Council. This council includes more than a dozen representatives from the province’s business community, and from sectors including mining, forestry, agriculture, manufacturing and bioscience, as well as Indigenous leadership.

On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would be imposing 25% tariffs on Canadian goods going into the U.S. beginning Tuesday.

That prompted Kinew to announce Sunday that the NDP government would be pulling U.S. liquor products from Liquor Marts beginning on Tuesday, and he said new actions will be announced every day this week to retaliate against the tariffs and to support Manitobans.

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“All this week we will be rolling out new steps to support your jobs and to support our economy,” Kinew said.

On Monday morning, Kinew said he has asked his finance minister to now look for ways to prevent American companies from procuring provincial contracts in Manitoba.

“This weekend was obviously a challenging one,” Kinew said on Monday. “I think that everyone knew that the tariff threat was there, but when it materializes in a concrete fashion, it takes on a much larger dimension.

“Obviously our government has taken action pulling American booze off the shelves, and I’ve also asked our minister of finance to look at procurement, and to look at preventing American companies from bidding when we go to the market.”

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The provinces of Ontario, B.C., Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have all also announced they plan to pull American liquor from store shelves in response to the tariffs, which were set to go into place Tuesday.

Kinew said the council will also be focused on “diversifying” Manitoba’s export market, to ensure we are trading with “reliable” trading partners and looking for viable trading options outside of the U.S.

“So those are going to be some of the conversations that we are going to have,” Kinew said.

Kinew also warned that the trump tariffs would cause more than a trade war, as he said he believes Trump is now looking to threaten Canada’s sovereignty.

“It’s clear that the current situation is much more than just a trade dispute. This is also an attack on Canadian sovereignty,” Kinew said. “And as a result of that being brought forward by the American president, I think that it’s important that we have a broader discussion than just exclusively trade issues and economic issues.”

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Monday meeting marked the first official meeting of the new U.S. trade council.

“Unity is our strength right now, which is why we’ve pulled together this council with representation from business, labour and Indigenous governments,”Kinew said. “We’re going to stand up for Manitoba workers and the businesses that power our economy.

“This table will provide us with ideas and hear the needs of businesses and workers that we should respond to.”

In addition to trade council members announced last month, the province says they have now also added several more representatives to the council, including newly- elected Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) Kyra Wilson, as well as Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand.

According to the province any Manitoban workers or businesses impacted by American tariffs can get support by contacting the Manitoba government tariff hotline at 1-877-827-4330.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

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