Pause on some U.S. tariffs until April 2 'not good enough,' says Manitoba premier

CBC

06-03-2025

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Premier Wab Kinew says the Manitoba government will continue countermeasures announced in response to U.S. tariffs announced earlier this week, even though some of those tariffs have now been put on hold.
Manitoba Hydro will also review contracts on energy exports to the United States, Kinew said Thursday.
"While these Trump tariffs are being dangled over us, we have to use every single tool in the tool box," Kinew told reporters at a 4 p.m. CT news conference, just hours after the White House announced the U.S. is once again pausing some of the tariffs it imposed this week.
During question period at the Manitoba Legislature earlier on Thursday, Kinew said for the time being, American alcohol will remain off Liquor Marts shelves, and planned tax deferrals continuing to be offered in response to the tariffs.
U.S. President Donald Trump slapped a 25 per cent tariff on nearly all Canadian goods entering the United States as of Tuesday. But in a major shift, the White House announced Thursday afternoon the tariffs will be paused on some goods until April 2.
A White House official told some American news outlets in a background briefing that the tariff reprieve would only apply to Canadian exports that are compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
The Associated Press reported that roughly 62 per cent of imports from Canada would likely still face the 25 per cent tariffs because they're not "USMCA compliant," as the free trade agreement is known in the U.S., according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to preview the new executive order on a call with reporters.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, speaking with CBC's Power & Politics on Thursday, said it's true some companies have not done all the CUSMA-related paperwork, but "the vast majority of Canadian exports to the U.S. are or can quickly be CUSMA compliant."
Kinew, though, said "a reprieve until April 2 is not good enough."
"We cannot live as Manitobans with a persistent threat of Donald Trump tariff tax," he said during question period.
Speaking to reporters later, he said the fact the U.S. tariffs are lower on energy exports"reveals an area where we have strength."
"When we look at those threats coming from Donald Trump's administration, and you've got the lower tariff level on electricity, energy, critical minerals, that's a tell.… [It's] something that they really, really need," he said.
That means for Manitoba, hydro power is "a critical resource that we have," he said.
The province has asked Manitoba Hydro to look into procurement, but the province won't make any rash decisions regarding energy exports, Kinew said, given their importance to Manitoba's economy.
"We've got to be very, very responsible" with hydro power, he said. "We're talking about hundreds of megawatts, thousands of megawatts in total, billions of dollars."
Hydro electricity represents one of the largest Manitoba exports to the U.S.
This is the second time the Trump administration has put threatened tariffs on hold.