At odds with Trump over trade, Canadians to avoid US goods: Poll

Seventy per cent of Canadians say they will start looking for ways to avoid buying US-made goods in a threat to ratchet up a trade dispute between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Donald Trump, an Ipsos Poll showed on Friday.

The poll also found a majority of Americans and Canadians are united in support of Trudeau and opposition to Trump in their countries’ stand-off over the renegotiation of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Amid the spat, Trump pulled out of a joint communique with six other countries last weekend during a Quebec summit meeting of the Group of Seven rich nations and called Trudeau “very dishonest and weak.”

Trump was reacting to Trudeau having called US steel and aluminium tariffs insulting to Canada. Trudeau has said little about the matter since a Trump Twitter assault.

Despite the tensions, 85 per cent of Canadians and 72 per cent of Americans said they support being in NAFTA, and 44 per cent of respondents in both countries said renegotiation of the deal would be a good thing for their country.

While the poll showed support for a boycott of US goods in Canada, pulling it off could be difficult in a country that reveres US popular culture and consumer goods over all others. Canada is the largest market for US goods.

Trudeau over Trump

The poll showed 72 per cent of Canadians and 57 per cent of Americans approved of the way Trudeau had handled the situation, while 14 percent of Canadians and 37 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s behaviour.

More than eight in 10 Canadians and seven in 10 Americans worry the situation has damaged bilateral relations.

Canada has vowed to retaliate against US tariffs on steel and aluminium with tariffs against a range of US goods, a move supported by 79 per cent of Canadians, according to the poll, Reuters reported.

By contrast, Americans opposed escalating the situation. Thirty-one percent of Americans said they favoured even stronger tariffs, and 61 per cent said other elected US officials should denounce Trump’s statements.

Canadian respondents also signalled approval of the united front their politicians have shown, with 88 percent saying they welcomed the support of politicians from other parties for the Liberal government’s decision to push back on tariffs.

While Canadian consumers appeared ready to boycott US goods, 57 per cent of Canadians and 52 per cent of Americans said Canada should not overreact to Trump’s comments because it was just political posturing.

The Ipsos Poll of 1,001 Canadians and 1,005 Americans - including 368 Democrats, 305 Republicans and 202 Independents - was conducted June 13-14. It has a credibility interval of 3.4 percentage points.