Proposed U.S. forced labour tariffs are ‘not a surprise,’ Carney says

New forced labour tariffs proposed by the United States are “not a surprise” for Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday.

The Trump administration early on Wednesday said it was proposing an additional tariff of 10 per cent or more on products from dozens of major trading partners, including Canada.

“This is not a surprise,” Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters in Ottawa.

“It’s something that the U.S. has been planning for a few months,” he added.

The report released early Wednesday by the U.S. Trade Representative said Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, as well as some other countries, would face 10 per cent additional tariffs for allegedly failing to enforce a forced labour import ban.

The new tariffs maintain the exception for goods that comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement, also known as CUSMA, Carney said.

“That puts us in a position where, again, we would still have the best trade deal of any of the U.S. trade counterparts,” he said.

Canada also supports the objective behind the new tariffs, Carney added.

“The motivation of the U.S. action, the 301 tariffs or proposed tariffs against a variety of countries, is something that we share. Canada has a very strong legislative regime against forced labour in supply chains,” he said.

“We don’t want any element of forced labour coming in goods and services and we want to use our influence to eliminate this practice of forced labour and child labour,” Carney added.

–with files from The Associated Press