Canadians have been told, for months, that a key tenet in the Prime Minister's whole trade strategy is "walk away from Washington, pivot to Europe"

Hold on a second.

The EU's carbon tariff hits Canadian steel, iron and aluminum, the same metals already hit by U.S. tariffs. And even though, with great fanfare, the Prime Minister is forging ahead with some kind of "associate membership" for Canada in the EU, an exemption is "not currently possible." In other words, he sat on that detail for 10 months, until an access to information request forced it out days before he hosts the Canada-EU Summit.

So the plan is: turn down the August terms that were agreed then disagreed to in three days with the U.S., tell workers Europe is the answer, and quietly know Europe is putting up its own border charge. According to the CBCNews report, that charge is close to $900M a year in exposure in Newfoundland and Labrador, $792M in Quebec, and adds up to $150 more per tonne of steel by 2034.

And recall that he weakened the carbon price in his Alberta deal while knowing that, with it, he made an EU exemption even harder to get.

What kind of diversification is it if you're trading one tariff wall for two and hoping nobody reads the memo? 

Hold on a second. Canadians have been told, for months, that a key tenet in the Prime Minister's whole trade strategy is "walk away from Washington, pivot to Europe". Now we find out his own officials told him in December 2025 that the pivot runs straight into a wall? The EU's carbon tariff hits Canadian steel, iron and aluminum, the same metals already hit by U.S. tariffs. And even though, with great fanfare, the Prime Minister is forging ahead with some kind of "associate membership" for Canada in the EU, an exemption is "not currently possible." In other words, he sat on that detail for 10 months, until an access to information request forced it out days before he hosts the Canada-EU Summit. So the plan is: turn down the August terms that were agreed then disagreed to in three days with the U.S., tell workers Europe is the answer, and quietly know Europe is putting up its own border charge. According to the @CBCNews report, that charge is close to $900M a year in exposure in Newfoundland and Labrador, $792M in Quebec, and adds up to $150 more per tonne of steel by 2034. And recall that he weakened the carbon price in his Alberta deal while knowing that, with it, he made an EU exemption even harder to get. What kind of diversification is it if you're trading one tariff wall for two and hoping nobody reads the memo?

— Neil G. Oberman (@NeilOberman)October 28, 2026