Mitch McCann: US Correspondent on the trade war between Canada and the US, potential tariff relief

Canada could be seeing some potential relief from US tariffs. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed the 25% import levies as a "very dumb thing to do", as Ottawa announced it will impose tariffs of its own. 

Trudeau is reportedly set for showdown talks with Donald Trump later today about the issue. 

But US correspondent Mitch McCann told Andrew Dickens Trump's commerce secretary has hinted some sectors could be left unscathed. 

He says it's been reported the auto sector could be tariff-free later today, with many cars and car parts transferring between Mexico, Canada, and the US. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mitch McCann joins us from the United States of America
with the time at thirteen minutes to six. Hey Mitch, hey, Andrew,
how are you good? That speech to Congress went on
and on and on and on.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's a record breaker, a dead It was more than
one hundred minutes, the longest presidential address in modern history,
where Donald Trump opened with the phrase last night, America
is back. He spent more than one hundred minutes, as
I mentioned, going over what he called his achievements. But
early on there was some disruption. One Democrat had to
be escorted out of the chamber for hickling. Donald Trump

(00:31):
and others held up signs saying things like false. But
Donald Trump chosen stead to taught many of them, calling
them radical left lunatics. But in terms of any actual
substance in his speech, he made a point of saying
that he appreciated Volodimyir Zelensky's message that Ukraine is ready
to come to the negotiating table. And that's interesting because
this morning the United States has paused the sharing of

(00:54):
intelligence with Ukraine. The CIA director told Fox Business that
Donald Trump had a real quick about whether or not
Zelensky was committed to the peace process, and he said,
let's pause, but that may not last very long. The
administration has really started softening its language about Zelensky and
Ukraine since that now infamous blow up at the Oval

(01:15):
Office only a few days ago.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, but they have strengthened their talk about tariffs against
almost all the world. Canada's reacting as well, what's reaction
in America?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, Canada very unhappy with this. Justin Trudeau yesterday saying
it was a very dumb thing to do, aimed at
Donald Trump that comment. But it's reported the peer Donald
Trump and Trudeau are going to speak later today about this.
But we are learning this morning there might be some
relief here with the tariffs, specifically targeting the auto sector.
Howard Luckneck, donald Trump's Commerce secretary, was interviewed by Bloomberg

(01:48):
this morning. He said, there are going to be tariffs,
but Donald Trump's thinking about which sections of the market
he's considering going giving some relief to. And the reports
are that that could be the auto sector as soon
as this afternoon. And there is a lot of cars
car parts that transfer between Mexico, Canada and the UIs,
so that would be a lot of belief we might
know as soon as this afternoon, but in an hour

(02:10):
and a half from now. The White House is holding
its press breeding, so we may get some more information soon.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Good stuff, Mitch McCann out of the United States of America.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
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