Premiers to meet with Trump’s senior advisers at White House; Legault discusses counter-tariffs on aluminum

Canada’s premiers are heading to the White House Wednesday for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior advisers amid tariff threats.

A news release from the Council of the Federation, which represents all provincial and territorial premiers, says due to the White House meeting, all other engagements were cancelled for Wednesday afternoon.

The premiers are in Washington on a joint mission to meet with Republicans in hopes of swaying the president away from plans to slap Canada with devastating duties.

The president signed executive orders Monday to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States, including Canadian products, starting March 12.

Trump previously threatened 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, with a lower 10 per cent levy on Canadian energy.

He delayed those levies until at least March 4 in response to border security commitments from both countries.

Legault: counter-tariffs on aluminum

Speaking in Washington, Quebec Premier François Legault evoked, for the first time on Wednesday, the threat of counter-tariffs on aluminum.

“We can’t continue to have … new threats every week,” Legault fumed during a press scrum with his counterparts from other provinces.

“We can’t rule anything out, not even putting tariffs on exports. I proposed that to my colleagues, we’re going to look at it as a scenario, an import tax only in the United States.

“This would encourage our aluminum smelters to export to Europe, Asia … to put the American government in difficulty, which would be forced to pay more transportation costs by importing aluminum from Asia or elsewhere.

“It’s really the United States that is in a bad situation.”

Upon his arrival in Washington on Tuesday, Legault repeatedly called Donald Trump’s strategy “ridiculous.” According to him, the United States is dependent on aluminum from Quebec.

Nearly 75 per cent of all primary aluminum produced in North America comes from Quebec, according to the Quebec Ministry of Economy.

Renegotiate free trade with Trudeau?

Legault has maintained: the climate is conducive to reopening the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, an idea that does not have consensus within the Council of the Federation.

The renegotiation of the free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico is scheduled for 2026.

“There are those who are for it, there are those who are against it. Obviously, the question that arises is: ‘Can we negotiate with a prime minister in Canada who is there temporarily’?” Legault asked.

“What I tell myself, and I speak on my own behalf, is the sooner we start, the sooner we will conclude, because it will take several months to renegotiate the entire agreement.

“For me, it is better to start as quickly as possible, because the federal election could take place in several months, so we would delay and continue to create uncertainty.”

However, there is no question of touching supply management or culture, two “non-negotiable” elements, indicated Premier Legault.

In a separate scrum in Washington, Canada’s Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said it would not be “realistic” to reopen the deal with the United States before April 1.

That’s when the Canada-U.S. trade review ordered by President Trump will be completed.

“In the coming weeks, the priority is to avoid tariffs,” he said. LeBlanc will meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik on Wednesday.

–With files from La Presse Canadienne