A Windsor-based businessman has some advice for our Prime Minister; stop fighting with Americans over tariffs.
Barry Zekelman, who owns businesses on both sides of the border including Atlas Tube in Lakeshore, says instead of imposing tariffs on American-made products, Justin Trudeau should be signing the North American Free Trade Agreement and impose its own steel and aluminium tariffs on countries that flood the Canadian market with their product.
"We see it every day," says Zekelman. "I've got a plant shut down in Welland, Ontario that could be producing pipe for the construction industry for non-residential construction, but we're being inundated with product from the likes of the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Oman, South Korea.
"I've filed trade cases for the last 20 years. We win against one country. They move production to the next," he says. "Canada is as abused as the U.S. is and it's about time someone stood up for the Canadians also."
Back in March when U.S. President Donald Trump first threatened to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the European Union, Zekelman was one of the few voices on this side of the border that was supportive. At the time, he told BlackburnNews.com, "finally someone is taking a stand that will deal with it, hopefully once and for all, and close all the loop-holes and backdoors that go on with circumvention."
Zekelman even offered his workers on both sides of the border a $1,000 bonus if the tariffs came to fruition. Now that they have, he says the cheques have gone out.
Since then, his support has only grown for Trump's stand on the issue, and the U.S. perspective in NAFTA talks.
"What Canada needs to do is stand with its best neighbour, best partner, best friend in the world in the U.S. and lock arms and fight against the countries who are abusing us. That's what we need to do," says Zekelman. "What President Trump is saying is 'listen, buddy, help me help you."
In the short-term, Zekelman admits the 25% tariff on steel and 10% on aluminium will hurt his company financially as some production in the U.S. shifts to Canada and vice versa.
"We'll do a little bit of tooling to do that. We'll lose a little bit of efficiency," he says. "In the interim, we'll redirect some stuff over to the U.S., but in general, we're still going to be making stuff here and shipping it over to the U.S."
He doubts the tariffs will be in place long but hopes Trump's move has a lasting impact on the Canadian steel industry.
"This isn't triggering a trade war. We are in a trade war. We've been in a trade war for the past 30 years," Zekelman insists. "Canada is being abused and so has the U.S. because both of us play nice... the rest of the world screws us."