If Canada wants to fight Trump’s tariffs, it should target coal shipped out of B.C.: economist

Canada’s new tariffs on U.S. imports take effect on July 1.

Punitive levies on dozens of American products in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum are set to kick in and will impact things such as ketchup, coffee and even playing cards — more than 60 consumer goods adding up to $16.6 billion.

But one economist says the feds should pass on ketchup and coffee and focus on an industry that Trump has long championed: coal.

Reviving the coal industry has been a key component of Trump’s promise to “make America great again.” The U.S. has large deposits in Wyoming and Montana, but few terminals to export the resource to the Asian markets where it’s most in demand.

The U.S. ships more coal from Westshore terminals in Delta, B.C. than any other port on the west coast.

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Canadian economist Jeff Rubin says that’s leverage Canada can use. If Ottawa slapped a tax on those coal trains heading to B.C., it may be enough to persuade Trump to back down.

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In a Financial Post editorial, Rubin argues that “a carbon tax on American thermal coal shipments through Canada would further hit an already imploding coal industry and has the potential to embarrass Trump with a failed promise to his supporters.”

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The idea is certainly popular with some White Rock residents who are sick of the hundreds of coal trains that rumble through the area each year.

“I swear there’s anywhere from 15 to 20 trains in a 24-hour period, and I am constantly wiping coal dust off my deck, off of my furniture in my house,” one resident told Global News.

The idea is not new. As B.C. premier, Christy Clark floated the idea of imposing a carbon tax on coal shipments as retaliation in the softwood lumber dispute.

If Ottawa were to target coal, it “would be a death knell to President Trump’s oft-stated promise of resuscitating a badly crippled coal industry,” Rubin argues.

— With files from Paul Johnson and The Canadian Press