Canada plans to strike back at the United States after President Donald Trump announced trade action yesterday against Canadian aluminum.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland called the tariffs absurd at a time when the world is dealing with a global pandemic and work is being done on both sides of the border to prevent loss of life and preserve jobs. She says a trade dispute is the last thing anyone needs and will only hurt economic recovery on both sides of the border.

Freeland announced Friday there will be retaliation for the 10 per cent import tariff on Canadian aluminum and in conjunction with that the federal government is looking, over the next 30 days, for input from Canadians and Canadian businesses as to the potential impact on Canada because of the U.S. trade action.

She says retaliation will be perfectly reciprocal, dollar for dollar, to the tune of $3.6 billion. Freeland says her hope is that the U-S tariffs, which don’t come into force until August 16th, will be reconsidered.

She notes that any American who buys a can of beer or soda, a car or a bike, will suffer. In fact she says the very washing machines manufactured at the Whirlpool plant, where the U-S president announced the trade action, will become more expensive for Americans and less competitive with machines produced elsewhere in the world.