The tariffs, proposed by U.S. President-elect Trump have left many in Canadian agriculture worried and uncertain about the economic fallout.

Trudeau said Wednesday that “everything’s on the table” when it comes to Canada’s response to the tariffs following the First Ministers’ meeting in Ottawa. He said this could include a dollar-for-dollar response.

Trudeau also said he believed there is precedent for Canada presenting a united effort when facing trade challenges.

“The experience Canada had in renegotiating NAFTA in the first Trump administration demonstrated that when we stand together united, promoting Canada’s interests, we can do very well,” the Prime Minister said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Canada will need to have a strong response ready in the days following Trump’s inauguration.

“Things are going to change in a week when the inauguration happens of President Trump, and if he moves forward with these tariffs,” Ford said.

“The retaliatory tariffs need to be harder. We have to send a message when someone comes up and tries to destroy our economy, it will be devastating for Canadians, and that’s why it’s so important.”

“We’ve been through this before,” said Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, “maybe not as large and broad as what is being talked about now, but we have been through this before.”

Moe said it will be important for all North Americans to recognize the threats tariffs pose to food security in both Canada and the U.S. “That value is added on both sides of the border. And we need to double down on our efforts in engaging on those fronts.”

Not in attendance at the First Ministers’ meeting was Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who said in a statement on social media she would not support the federal government’s tariff plan.

“Alberta will simply not agree to export tariffs on our energy or other products, nor do we support a ban on exports of these same products,” Smith said via the post. “We will take whatever actions are needed to protect the livelihoods of Albertans from such destructive federal policies.”

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“Your guess is as good as mine,” Marcos Mosnaim of Export Packers said as to what could happen, adding “Canada has to be careful. I don’t know what India will do.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated Sept. 18 there is credible evidence collected by Canadian intelligence services pointing to the India government allegedly having a role in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Killed outside of a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. on June 18, Nijjar was a Canadian citizen and also a Sikh separatist in support of a Khalistani state independent from India.

The Indian government, which in 2020 had deemed Nijjar to be a terrorist, stopped issuing visas in Canada soon after Trudeau’s statement last week. According to members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, however, Indian diplomats did not deny Trudeau’s claim when speaking privately about it.

By the end of July, the Canadian Grain Commission and Statistics Canada recorded exports of lentils to India for 2022-23 were 661,904 tonnes by bulk vessel and by container. That made India the largest of Canada’s lentil customers.

Mosnaim was attending the Pulse and Special Crops Convention, which runs Tuesday to Thursday in Calgary and is organized by the Canadian Pulse and Special Crops Trade Association, with buyers from India attending.

Traders might be able to suggest the fate of Canada’s lentil exports to India in the coming days, he said.

The Reuters news service on Tuesday quoted an unnamed senior Indian government official as saying India has no plans to restrict imports and Delhi has not instructed importers to refrain from purchases.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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After meeting with Liberal Party legislators in London, Ont., Trudeau said the government asked the executives of the five largest grocery chains, including Loblaw, Sobeys and Metro, to come to Ottawa next week to explain how they will stabilize prices. The five companies, representing 80 per cent of the Canadian grocery market, have until Oct. 9 to come up with a proposal.

“If their plan doesn’t provide real relief … we will take further action and we are not ruling anything out, including tax measures,” Trudeau said.

“It does not make sense in a country like Canada that our largest grocery chains should be making record profits while Canadians are struggling to put food on the table.”

In 2022, Canada’s three largest grocers — Loblaw, Sobeys, and Metro — collectively reported more than $100 billion in sales and earned more than $3.6 billion in profit.

Trudeau, who is under pressure over a lack of affordable housing, said his government will remove the federal five per cent sales tax on the construction of new rental apartment buildings.

“There are many developers and builders that are not moving forward with building new apartments because the costs are simply too high,” Trudeau said, adding the measure will lead to the creation of many new apartment buildings.

Trudeau’s minority government is propped up by left-leaning New Democrats and a federal election is only due in 2025. But opinion polls show the main opposition Conservatives, who accuse Trudeau of driving inflation through high government spending, would win power and end eight years of Liberal rule if an election were held now.

Boosting competition

Several grocery executives denied profiteering charges in a parliamentary committee earlier this year. But the lack of competition in the grocery sector has also irked the federal competition watchdog, and in June, it said more players were crucial to combat soaring prices of essential goods.

Trudeau waded into that debate on Thursday and said his government will remove provisions in competition laws that companies use to defend big mergers, saying cost savings outweigh negative impacts on competition.

Soaring food prices have been a concern for European governments as well and in March the French government reached a deal with the country’s main supermarket chains to help shoppers cope with food prices.

But the Retail Council of Canada pushed back against Trudeau’s claims and blamed the surging prices on food manufacturers and producers passing on higher costs to the grocers.

The association’s spokesperson Michelle Wasylyshen said any “credible discussion” on restoring prices must include food processors, manufacturers and other relevant businesses within the supply chain.

Sobeys and Walmart Canada had no immediate comment, while Metro declined comment. Loblaw said the company was “always open to discussions about what more can be done across the industry.”

In July, Trudeau shuffled much of his cabinet to focus on issues like a housing shortage and the rising cost of living and on Thursday he reiterated that he had no plan to quit.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on Thursday again blamed the housing crisis on Trudeau, and said he would introduce his own plan to get homes built to parliament when it reconvenes next week after the summer break.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren and Steve Scherer; additional reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bangalore; writing by Denny Thomas.

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Nearly 25 million tonnes of grains are stuck in Ukraine, unable to leave the country due to infrastructure challenges and blocked Black Sea ports including Mariupol, a U.N. food agency official said last week. Mariupol has endured the most destructive fighting of the 10-week war.

Food prices soared to record highs in March following Russia’s invasion of the world’s No. 4 exporter of maize (corn) in the 2020-21 season and the sixth largest wheat exporter. Prices eased slightly in April.

“We know people around the world are going to be starving because of the actions of Russia,” Trudeau told Reuters in an interview.

“There is grain waiting to be shipped in Ukraine. We have to make sure that Russia doesn’t prevent the grain that the world needs from getting out to the world.”

Since Moscow launched what it calls a “special military operation” in late February, Ukraine has been forced to export grain by train over its western border.

Kyiv has also been looking to use ports on the Danube river in the country’s south to help with exports.

Shipments via Danube river ports could be part of the solution, Trudeau said, not revealing details. He added that a number of options were being considered.

“We’re just looking to solve a very direct problem,” he said.

Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, speaking on Monday in a telephone interview from Berlin, said the idea is to find multiple ways to get grain out of Ukraine, and that Turkey’s co-operation would be important.

“We will work to make sure that there are different routes that can be used,” Joly said.

“We will work with different countries, including Turkey, as we know that the Bosphorus is fundamental to the access of the Black Sea,” she added.

Analysts have warned that Ukraine will face a significant shortage of storage facilities in the 2022-23 season due to a sharp fall in exports.

Trudeau, in an unannounced visit to Ukraine, said after his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday that Canada was providing $25 million to the U.N.’s World Food Programme as part of efforts to uphold food security.

Canada will also remove trade tariffs on all Ukrainian imports to Canada for next year.

“It doesn’t serve anyone if Vladimir Putin’s war is not just killing Ukrainians, but is starving people around the world,” Trudeau told Reuters, referring to Russia’s president.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Balmforth in Kyiv; additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa, writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne.

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The closure of the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest international land border crossing and a vital supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, has halted some auto output and left officials scrambling to limit economic damage.

Canadian truckers started their protests as a “Freedom Convoy” occupying Ottawa, the capital, to demonstrate opposition to a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers mirrored by the U.S. government.

They began blocking the Ambassador Bridge on Monday and have since shut two smaller border crossings in Alberta and Manitoba.

As many pandemic-weary western countries near the two-year mark on coronavirus restrictions, copycat protests have spread to Australia, New Zealand and France, although the wave of infections caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant has begun to subside in some places.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged their Canadian counterparts “to use federal powers to resolve this situation at our joint border,” a White House official said on Thursday.

“U.S. and Canadian border and customs authorities are working with great urgency to ensure the continued flow of goods and services across our international border, leveraging alternative land routes, as well as air and sea options.”

A U.S. homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood Randall, is due to speak with Canada’s Deputy Defence Minister Jody Thomas.

Canadian federal ministers have called the blockade illegal and asked protesters to return home. Police near the Ambassador Bridge have begun receiving additional manpower, Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor, which borders Detroit, told CNN.

“(If) the protesters don’t leave, there will have to be a path forward. If that means physically removing them, that means physically removing them, and we’re prepared to do that,” he said.

Dilkens later said Windsor was seeking an injunction from Ontario Superior Court to have the protesters removed, adding he was striving to resolve the issue peacefully.

“(While) it may be gratifying for someone to see the forced removal of the demonstrators, such action may inflame the situation and certainly cause more folks to come here and add to the protest, and we don’t want to risk additional conflict,” Dilkens said.

Diverting cargo

With traffic at times shut in both directions, General Motors and Chrysler’s parent Stellantis said on Thursday they had to cancel or reduce shifts because of parts shortages, tacking on to earlier production cuts announced by Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.

Toyota said it was suspending production through Saturday at its plants in Ontario and Kentucky, affecting manufacturing of the Camry, RAV4 and other popular models.

Ford is looking at flying in some auto parts to a plant in Windsor that produces engines for popular models, a union official said.

The Ambassador Bridge was completely shut from both directions on Thursday as of 3:15 p.m. ET, according to a Reuters witness.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was working to end the bridge blockade which hurt “regular Canadians whether it’s grocery store prices, whether it’s jobs lost or suspended, whether it’s supply chains disrupted.”

In a tweet Thursday, Trudeau said he had spoken to Dilkens and said the federal government was ready to help Windsor and the province get the situation under control.

“It is causing real harm to workers and economies on both sides of the border,” he said.

An Ontario court on Thursday froze funds donated to anti-vaccine protesters through the app GiveSendGo. The convoy group had raised more than $8 million as of late Thursday afternoon, the Boston-based company said.

Protesters began gathering with their vehicles in Ottawa nearly two weeks ago and have occupied the main downtown street that runs by Parliament, the Bank of Canada and the prime minister’s office.

More U.S disruption to come?

More than two-thirds of the $511 billion in goods traded annually between Canada and the U.S. is transported by road. The Detroit International Bridge Co., which owns the Ambassador Bridge, urged Canada to end the protest by repealing the vaccine mandate or remove the vehicles so trade can resume.

A third option was to do “nothing and hope this ends on its own: an option that will most likely prolong the blockade, further crippling our economy and putting more jobs at risk,” the company’s chairman, Matt Moroun, said in a statement.

Seeking to show support for the Canadian protesters, some U.S. truckers said they will send two convoys this weekend to a fourth border crossing that connects Buffalo, N.Y. and Fort Erie, Ont.

The U.S. is adding staff to its command post at the National Football League’s Super Bowl in Los Angeles in response to reports of a convoy causing disruptions at Sunday’s game, the White House official said.

The official said in a statement that the Department of Homeland Security was making preparations to ensure that a ‘Freedom Convoy’ event in Washington D.C. due in early March “does not disrupt lawful trade and transportation or interfere with federal government and law enforcement operations and emergency services.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Carlos Osorio,Steve Holland and Ismail Shakil; additional reporting by David Shepardson, Chris Gallagher and Tim Ahmann in Washington, Rod Nickel in Manitoba, Julie Gordon in Ottawa and Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; writing by Rami Ayyub and Costas Pitas.

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More than 200 trucks and other vehicles have been blockading downtown roads in the nation’s capital since last Friday in what is an unprecedented protest by Canadian standards.

Organizers say drivers plan to hold similar protests in Toronto and Quebec City later this week amid growing frustration over almost two years of restrictions imposed to fight COVID-19.

A related blockade mounted Saturday at a major Canada-U.S. border crossing at Coutts, Alta. was partly opened Wednesday to allow single lanes of north- and southbound traffic and trade.

Ottawa residents are angry that local police are largely watching the demonstrations rather than moving in to break them up. The city’s police chief on Wednesday indicated guns were being smuggled into the protest and said using the military was an option, but Trudeau dismissed the idea.

“There is no question of sending in the army,” the prime minister said.

Some demonstrators want an end to a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers while others insist Trudeau be removed from power on the grounds he exceeded his authority.

Protest organizer Tamara Lich said the demonstrators would stay in place until all mandates had been dropped.

“Our movement has grown in Canada and across the world because common people are tired of the mandates and restrictions in their lives that now seem to be doing more harm than good,” she told a news conference.

A few people on Ottawa streets have brandished Nazi flags, harassed minorities and threatened reporters.

“That is unacceptable. It’s time for these people to go home,” Trudeau told reporters.

Ottawa police, who have made just three arrests so far, issued 30 traffic tickets on Wednesday.

The protesters have raised more than $10 million on the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, which has suspended disbursements while it checks on how the money is being spent.

Legislators on the House of Commons public safety committee voted on Thursday to summon GoFundMe representatives to testify about what safeguards it has in place when it comes to releasing the funds.

‘Lessons to be learned’

Quebec Premier Francois Legault said authorities would not tolerate any mayhem related to protests. Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand told a radio station that “there are lessons to be learned from Ottawa.”

Trudeau’s Liberals look set to benefit politically from the protests, which have split the official opposition Conservative Party. Federal Conservative lawmakers ousted leader Erin O’Toole on Wednesday, citing his poor performance in an election defeat to the Liberals last September and his initial, lukewarm support for the protests.

Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and other parliamentarians later posed with protestors, a move Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson branded “an absolute disgrace.”

Southern Manitoba MP Candice Bergen, the Conservatives’ deputy leader and former House leader, was named Wednesday to replace O’Toole as the party’s acting chief, pending a new leadership race.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren; additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Steve Scherer in Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were picked up in December 2018, shortly after Vancouver police arrested Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant.

Shortly before Trudeau spoke, Canadian media reported that Meng flew back to China after reaching a deal with U.S. authorities.

“Twelve minutes ago Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor left Chinese airspace on their way back home,” Trudeau told reporters in brief remarks.

“These two men have been through an unbelievably difficult situation, but it is inspiring and it is good news for all of us that they are on their way home to their families.”

Although Beijing insisted throughout that the two cases were not linked, Trudeau’s Liberal government accused China of engaging in hostage diplomacy. Trudeau was not asked whether the two countries had struck a bilateral deal.

“I want to thank our allies and partners around the world in the international community who have stood steadfast in solidarity with Canada and with these two Canadians,” he said.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren.

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Trudeau, under pressure to allow non-essential travel from the U.S., was more categorical than he had been on Tuesday, when he said announcements on border relaxation measures would come in the weeks ahead.

“I know people want to reopen (the border). But I know these people are also really afraid that we will have to pull back and reimpose restrictions if we open too quickly,” he told French-language broadcaster Radio-Canada.

Pressed for a specific timetable as to when the restrictions would be eased, Trudeau replied: “This will happen in weeks — it won’t be months, we’re talking about weeks — but it will take a few more weeks.”

Canada said on Monday it would waive quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated citizens on July 5 but made clear it would be months before U.S. and other foreign travellers could enter the country.

Trudeau said authorities were looking at vaccination rates, the spread of variants of concern and how the rest of the world was dealing with COVID-19.

Canada and the U.S. first banned non-essential travel in March 2020 as a part of the effort to fight COVID-19. The restrictions, which exclude trade in goods, are now due to expire on July 21.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren in Ottawa.

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Trudeau’s hand was forced when Innovations Minister Navdeep Bains, 43, unexpectedly announced he was resigning from politics for family reasons. Bains, who has two school-age daughters and had been in the job since November 2015, was a senior minister from Ontario, a Liberal stronghold.

Canadian prime ministers traditionally shuffle their team if a cabinet member says they will not run in the next election.

Francois-Philippe Champagne, 50, will leave the foreign ministry to take over for Bains. Marc Garneau, 71, moved from transport to become Canada’s fourth foreign minister in just over four years.

Garneau’s main tasks will be establishing relations with the incoming Biden administration in the U.S. and handling a major diplomatic dispute with China.

One of Champagne’s first jobs will be to decide whether to allow China’s Huawei Technologies to supply next-generation equipment for 5G networks. Liberal sources say Ottawa will ban Huawei gear but is keeping silent so as not to anger Beijing.

Omar Alghabra, 51, will replace Garneau at transport and Winnipeg MP Jim Carr rejoins cabinet as a special representative for the Prairies, where the Liberals failed to win seats in the last election.

Alghabra, a backbench Liberal MP for Mississauga (2006-08, 2015-present), now takes responsibility for federal transport policy, significant to rail-dependent Prairie grain growers and to exporters moving Canadian commodities overseas.

A mechanical engineer by profession, he has previously served in several parliamentary secretary posts, including international trade diversification and consular affairs.

Carr, 69, had been minister for international trade diversification heading into the October 2019 federal election, but stepped down from cabinet at that time to undergo cancer treatment.

Trudeau said last week there could well be an election this year but stressed he wanted to stay in office to focus on the coronavirus epidemic.

— Reporting for Reuters by Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren in Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Trudeau’s comments were a clear indication that the border restrictions will last well into 2021. The two neighbours agreed to the ban in March and have rolled it over on a monthly basis ever since.

The ban does not affect trade. The two countries have highly integrated economies and Canada sends 75 per cent of its goods exports to the United States every month.

“Until the virus is significantly more under control everywhere around the world, we’re not going to be releasing the restrictions at the border,” Trudeau told CBC when asked about the issue.

“We are incredibly lucky that trade in essential goods, in agricultural products, in pharmaceuticals is flowing back and forth as it always has,” he said.

Trudeau spoke the day after his minority Liberal government said the budget deficit would hit a historic $381.6 billion on COVID-19 aid and promised to spend an additional $100 billion in stimulus.

Trudeau, who relies on other parties to govern, would be toppled if the House of Commons votes against the measures but he dismissed that as unlikely.

“I am reasonably confident none of the opposition parties wants an election right now,” he later told reporters.

The border restrictions are opposed by the travel industry, hit by a slumping number of tourists.

But the premiers of Canada’s major provinces say they have no interest in re-opening the border as long as cases of COVID-19 escalate in the United States.

A second wave is also sweeping across Canada, where authorities are starting to re-impose restrictions on businesses and limit the size of gatherings.

— David Ljunggren is Reuters’ national political correspondent in Ottawa.

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