Prime Minister Mark Carney says the House will be proposing legislation to tighten practice against trade goods and services from forced labor, after the Trump administration’s 10 per cent additional tariff on Canada and other countries following an investigation. 

Speaking to reporters ahead of caucus meeting today, Carney said the U.S.’s decision will “not have an impact” on Canadian trade. 

“Canada has a very strong legislative regime against forced labour, in supply chains,” Carney told reporters on Wednesday. 

“We don’t want any element of forced labour coming in goods and services and we want to use our influence to eliminate this practice.” 

The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced it had investigated 60 economies and concluded that they are not doing enough to stop products made with forced labour from entering their markets on Tuesday. 

“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable, this creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said. 

As a result, the U.S. proposed a 10 per cent tariff on countries that have some forced labour restrictions in place, and 12.5 per cent tariffs on countries that have “failed to impose and effectively enforce” prohibition all together. 

Canada is one of six places the U.S. listed to have “failed to effectively enforce prohibition” on imported goods produced with forced labour. 

The USTR said they will be holding hearings on the proposed actions on Sunday. 

As for the Opposition Party, Conservative Trade Critic Adam Chambers echoed a similar sentiment of the prime minister, saying the current forced labour legislation is not enough and called to reexamine those laws on Wednesday. 

“We haven’t been able to address this issue as we should,” he said. 

However, Chambers accused Carney for abandoning repairing U.S. relationships to saddle closer with China, which he noted is an “offender of populations that use forced labour.” 

“I think you’re seeing the results of this as impacting our relationship with the United States,” Chambers said. 

In a press conference, Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said in French that fighting for child labor is a very “noble” cause, but “hypocritical” when the administration is solely using it as a reason to reimpose tariffs.  

 The Bloc tabled Bill C-251 that aims to amend customs and customs tariff in relation to forced labour and child labour. 

The bill specifically required importers that import goods from places that have high probability of using forced labour to prove that goods are not produced through those means.   

When asked if the government has been in conversation on that specific bill, Blanchet said they’ve never said they were “against” it, but it was always postponed. 

A spokesperson from the Bloc caucus also confirmed that they heard no response even after a press conference in April. 

At question period, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the government “wholeheartedly” and “emphatically” condemned forced labour wherever it occurs. 

The criticism comes as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is urging Carney to publicly condemn forced labour, citing the government’s recent EV agreement with Beijing and allegations that parts of the country’s EV supply chain rely on forced labour. 

Anand further noted funding, trade agreement commitments and the recent talk with China’s foreign minister.