Premier says the province will be ready to respond with anti-tariff measures again if needed

B.C. Premier David Eby announced Monday in a late afternoon news conference that B.C. would put a hold on planned retaliatory measures following U.S. President Donald Trump’s 30-day pause on his tariff threat earlier in the day.

In the meantime, the premier said the government will continue to explore trade alternatives and work to strengthen the provincial economy.

He said the province will be ready to respond with anti-tariff measures again if need be.

“We’ve got to prepare for the worst-case scenario even though we hope for the best.”

These measures included removing alcohol from “red” or Republican-leaning states from the shelves of provincially-run liquor stores, ordering Crown corporations to avoid contracts with American companies and working with B.C.-based resource companies to divert critical minerals and energy away from the United States and toward other trading partners.

  • RentlarEnglish
    8·
    8 days ago

    I like the particular wording Eby used in this presser, where he correctly assigns the blame on the United States president and is not showing any sign of backing down despite the good faith pause. It’s hard to summarize any more so I have transcribed it:

    I would love nothing more, as I’m sure many Canadians and Americans would like, to say, “Hey, mission accomplished! We’re done. Let’s move on”. But the reality is, that these unilateral actions by the United States, through the President, have changed our relationship for the forseeable future.

    Our work continues, while this tariff threat hangs over our heads. First of all, we will pause our response, recognizing that there is an opportunity here to potentially avoid these tariffs, and hoping in good faith that that is the path that this ultimately takes. But that doesn’t mean we will abandon our preparations for non-tariff measures, if there’s a tweet tomorrow, that puts the tariffs back on.

    We need to be prepared. We will be prepared, and we will continue our work to respond. And hopefully, we don’t need to and we can all move forward.