Brenda O’Farrell
The Advocate

The 19-member crisis panel struck by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month to help formulate and steer Canada’s response to tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump includes two Quebecers – former premier Jean Charest and Martin Caron, president of the Union des producteurs agricoles.

Caron’s appointment ensures that interest of Quebec farmers will be part of the Council on Canada-U.S. Relations’s conversations surrounding how Canada should plan and respond to the tariff threats.

Critics, however, have already weighed in, voicing concerns that other sectors are receiving priority treatment, especially in the wake of the so-called tariff summit the prime minister convened in Toronto on Feb. 7.

Keith Curry, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, attended the summit, which focused heavily on the looming tariff threat and their impacts on the auto industry. In media interviews, Curry said he would have liked to have seen a more proportionate representation from the farming sector.

“I know the auto industry’s getting a lot of play around these tariffs, and rightfully so,” Curry said, “but the industry that has $14 billion GDP annually, versus an industry that has $150 billion GDP annually, you’d think the ratio of representation would have been different.”

The Council on Canada-U.S. Relations also includes Steve Verhaul, Canada’s former chief negotiator from 2017 and 2021. He was responsible for hammering out the NAFTA agreement with the U.S. and Mexico and the Canada-European Union trade agreement. Prior to that he was Canada’s chief agriculture negotiator responsible for leading the country’s involvement in international trade talks involving agriculture, including with the World Trade Organization.