CALGARY — In response to whether oil should be used as leverage in the negotiations with the US on trade, Minister of Industry Melanie Joly says she cannot say."So I know you would like me to answer that question detail, but I also know that you know that I can't because, we don't negotiate in public," stated Joly in response to whether Canada could place tariffs amid US trade negotiations during a Calgary press conference on Wednesday. "Not only that, we've already made important decisions when it comes to counter tariffs, which were just yesterday, which are important because the objectives of these counter tariffs are, first, to protect our businesses.""If a business is now being tariffed by 50%, because it usually sends a lot of its products to the US we need to make sure that, here in Canada, we protect our market, so that's why counter tariffs were put in place," Joly added..Joly continued by insisting a recent message she has been pushing is imperative to follow: "buy Canadian," in light of the trade negotiations going on with the country just across the border.She also reasoned she cannot answer the oil questions directly because the decision is up to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne.Joly answered the question at a press conference in Calgary, where she announced the feds would be spending $50 million on Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN), an agri-food research non-profit, to develop agri-technology.
