“We need to have those capabilities in Canada. We need to have those jobs in Canada. It constitutes a huge part of our industrial complex, both in Ontario and Quebec,” Ambassador Mark Wiseman told Reuters.
“From the Canadian perspective, the preservation of a robust assembly and parts industry in Canada is critical,” he added.
Wiseman’s pushback comes after Trump’s move to impose 50% tariffs on USD 20 billion in Canadian goods as bilateral trade talks collapsed a week before. Unresolved issues that pulled down the discussions included whether to cut tariffs on medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.
Canada has responded with USD 20 billion in tariffs that will take effect September 8. Trump’s new tariffs hit sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods, and hockey equipment.
The duties do not exempt Canadian products under a three-nation trade deal that also includes Mexico and has shielded most Canadian exports to the United States in the past 18 months.
“We will continue to talk so long as talking and negotiation are producing positive momentum. So we’re not picking up our toys and going home, but we have a plan. We have resolved. We’re not moving out of the neighborhood, neither is the United States,” Wiseman said, while expressing hope about the trade deal getting done.
Wiseman stated that the US congressional elections in November did not influence the selection of tariff targets for Canadian retaliation. Asked if Ottawa is considering more drastic measures, the official refused to divulge further details.
From the American side, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has defended his administration’s handling of the Canada trade talks.
He told reporters, “Canada was going to have the best trade deal in the world,” while adding that Ottawa did not raise the issue of tariff relief for medium- and heavy-duty trucks until the final hours of talks on August 21, the same day the negotiations failed.
Stating that Washington viewed those vehicles differently, Lutnick said, “It’s a whole different category. It was never raised. These were things they fit to make it end.”
As per the reports, the trade deal that fell apart would have cut the top-line tariff rate on Canadian cars and light-duty trucks from 25% to 15%.
As per Barclays, Canadian-built vehicles accounted for only about 6% of US sales in 2025. Still, as per the British bank’s estimates, if the current tariffs double, automakers including Ford Motor, General Motors, Jeep-maker Stellantis, Toyota, and Honda would face significant added costs on some of their most important models.
Simultaneously, a higher levy on vehicle parts would inflict pain across the American automotive supply chain.
Detroit auto executives, for quite some time, have been pressing their case to the Trump administration about how the tariff warfare over the past 18 months has left them in a worse position than Asian and European rivals.
While import tariffs from those markets stand at 15% due to the trade deals struck in 2025 with those nations, Trump’s levies have remained at 25% on Detroit automakers’ biggest trading partners, Mexico and Canada, with some relief on the value of their US content.
The administration reportedly floated the idea of requiring imported cars from Canada and Mexico to have half their content come from US-made parts to qualify for lower tariffs. Imports from Asia and Europe face no such content requirements.
For General Motors, about 17% of its Chevrolet Silverado pickup-truck production, its top-selling model, is located in Canada. For Stellantis, the US’ northern neighbor has emerged as the sole manufacturing site for its Chrysler Pacifica, one of its top-selling American models.
Ford, on the other hand, is set to start importing Super Duty large trucks from a plant in Oakville.
Among the non-American players, Toyota and Honda, according to Global Automakers of Canada, would be most exposed to the higher tariffs, as the two Japanese automakers accounted for more than 75% of the 1.2 million vehicles produced in the country in 2025, and many of those were shipped to the United States.