The United Steelworkers (USW) on Tuesday became the latest labour union to come out against the removal of Canada’s counter-tariffs on U.S. goods compliant with North American free trade rules, questioning the move’s efficacy amid a “worsening economic picture.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney has said the move, announced last week, was meant to match U.S. President Donald Trump’s exemption for goods traded under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) from his sweeping tariffs on Canada.
But USW national director Marty Warren said in a statement that Trump has been “increasingly diluting” CUSMA through his sector-specific tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, forestry and other industries, which have been imposed under a U.S. national security pretext known as Section 232.
Other sectors could be hit the same way in the future, he warned.
“Prime Minister Carney must meet the moment we are in,” Warren said. “The federal government must remain steadfast in working to not only safeguard and protect Canadian workers but aggressively build Canadian economic resiliency.
“Our federal government must keep our economic sovereignty at the centre of any and all decision-making when it comes to the renegotiation of CUSMA and in particular those sectors affected by Section 232 tariffs,” he added.
Warren also called for a federal industrial strategy that would bolster key manufacturing sectors hit by Trump’s tariffs “to defend and create jobs that provide the stability of decent pay and a union.”
The USW said such a strategy is necessary to “avoid further entrenching Canada as simply a supplier of natural resources sent to the U.S. for higher-value processing.”
Carney and Industry Minister Melanie Joly have said Ottawa is working on a defence industrial strategy that will develop ways to build up Canada’s domestic base.
Labour unions have been among the most outspoken critics of the counter-tariff removal, which has been endorsed by small and large business groups in Canada as well as U.S. consumer advocates.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business called it “a step in the right direction.”
Unifor, in a statement on Friday after Carney’s announcement, said the move “risks emboldening further U.S. attacks on Canadian industries and jobs.”
“Walking back counter-tariffs is not an olive branch—it’s an open invitation for more U.S. aggression,” the union’s national president Lana Payne said, adding it “sends the wrong signal at the worst possible moment.”
“Canada should not give up counter-tariffs unless the U.S. drops all of its unfair tariffs,” she said. “Backing down with concessions is a betrayal of the workers who are and will be paying the price.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Friday that removing the duties was another “capitulation and climbdown” for Carney in his negotiations with Trump, noting the U.S. president had not appeared to give up anything in return.
Carney said on Friday the removal of counter-tariffs would help restart trade negotiations with the Trump administration that had been stalled for weeks.
Trump raised his tariffs on Canada to 35 per cent on Aug. 1, citing Canada’s retaliatory tariffs as one reason for the increase.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc has said the counter-tariffs were a “significant point of contention” in negotiations leading up to that date.
LeBlanc travelled to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a clear signal talks had resumed.
Carney said Tuesday in separate press conferences with his counterparts in Germany and Latvia that negotiations with the U.S. are focused on tariff-impacted sectors of trade, now that CUSMA-compliant goods are no longer tariffed by either country.
“Eighty-five per cent of our trade is free trade,” he told reporters in Riga. “There are five areas where that is not the case, and those are in strategic sectors for the Americans: aluminum, steel, autos, copper … and then of course lumber.
“Those are the areas where immediately we are focused on improving the outcomes, if we can. And in order to do that … we will have to look at other areas where we can have win-win cooperation.”
The talks are expected to move quickly into initial negotiations towards next year’s scheduled review of CUSMA alongside Mexico.