Local MP says we need to ‘snap the Americans out of this fever they’re in’ and get to the bargaining table

The Ambassador Bridge as seen from Windsor, Ont. on Oct. 30, 2024. (CTV News file image)

The MP for Windsor-Tecumseh says if they need to talk about the free trade agreement, let’s do that with cool heads and do away with tariff threats that do nothing but damage the Canadian and U.S. economies.

Following a rollercoaster day in the trade war between Canada and the U.S., Liberal Irek Kusmierczyk told AM800’s The Shift, that they don’t want to be here, “There is a better path. We know this path where Canada and the U.S. work together. It’s worked for over 100 years. We need to get back to that path and dial the temperature down.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Tuesday afternoon that the province has agreed to suspend its 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S., announced Monday, following a call between Ford and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to double tariffs on all steel and aluminium coming from Canada, increasing tariffs to 50 per cent as of Wednesday, in response to the electricity tariff.

Ford then shared that he and federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be heading to Washington on Thursday and meeting with U.S. trade representatives to discuss a “renewed” CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) trade deal.

Kusmierczyk said CUSMA was negotiated by U.S. President Trump in his first term, an agreement that led to increased trade, prosperity, stability, and reliability on both sides of the border.

“If that needs to be discussed and negotiated, happy to do that. But let’s put the tariff threats aside, which will only impose a tax on American workers and communities on both sides of the border,” he said.

Kusmierczyk believes they have to take U.S. President Donald Trump when he talks about Canada being the 51st state, as this is not just economic warfare but an attack on our sovereignty.

“We have to act, not just with tough words but with resolve, with smart, targeted actions that will, again, bring the Americans back to the table, realizing, snap them out of this fever, snap them out of this fever that they’re in to get back to the negotiating table and work like partners,” he added.

The USMCA is set to terminate in 2036 at the close of its 16-year term.

The leaders of the three countries are due to meet in July 2026, and they can renew the agreement for a second 16-year term, but if any one of the three decides not to renew the agreement, the heads of each country will meet every year until they either agree to renew the USMCA, or run out of time before it expires in 2036.

— Rusty Thomson/AM800 News