By promising to impose tariffs of 10% on all American imports if he is elected, Donald Trump threatens to have “a terrible impact on a lot of businesses in Quebec,” warns the president of the Fédération des workers of Quebec (FTQ).
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The United States being Quebec’s main trading partner, with more than three-quarters of the province’s exports, this new tax could hit the Quebec economy hard, argues Magali Picard.
Several sectors could be particularly affected. “Forestry is clear,” she warned in an interview with Isabelle Maréchal on Tuesday on QUB radio at 99.5 FM Montreal, specifying that the Unifor union is already doing “everything it can with its international union to try to protect our industry as much as possible.
“Extremely difficult transition”
Faced with this threat, the FTQ is concerned about the lack of preparation of Quebec and Ottawa to protect local businesses.
“We risk experiencing an extremely difficult transition period and do we have the programs, are we able to support, are we able to further encourage our businesses?” asks Ms. Picard.
The first woman and first Indigenous person to lead the FTQ, Magali Picard believes that a victory for Kamala Harris as president of the United States would be “such a powerful message.” But she remains lucid about the economic challenges that await Quebec under a Democratic administration.
“The Democrats, we know that they are very protectionist, we make no secret of it,” she recalls, explaining that Quebec businesses will have to deal with restrictive measures, whether under a Republican or Democratic administration.
“Our Government of Canada will have to be very involved with the American presidency,” insists the president of the FTQ, which represents more than 600,000 Quebec workers.
*This text, generated with the help of artificial intelligence, was reviewed and validated by our team based on an interview carried out at QUB.
