By Amanda Stephenson
CALGARY (Reuters) – Any Canadian response to U.S. tariffs will be regionally fair and equitable and not single out Alberta, Canada’s main oil-producing province, Canada’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said on Wednesday.
Wilkinson said Canada’s response would focus on products in a way that hurts Americans more than Canadians.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian exports to the U.S. as soon as Saturday. Canada plans to respond with counter-tariffs on U.S. goods, and concerns the federal government could also restrict oil exports or impose export tariffs have caused tensions with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Canada sends 75% of all goods and services exports to the United States. Canada has been the top source of U.S. oil imports for many years, and supplied more than half of total U.S. crude imports in 2023.
Wilkinson told reporters that Canada must not respond in a way that damages its own long-term interests or hits one single sector or region disproportionately.
“You cannot single out the west. It has to be something that is going to be fair,” he said. “If there is pain, Quebec will feel it, Ontario will feel it, the west will feel it, Atlantic Canada will feel it.”
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson, Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Rod Nickel)
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