Yukon to pause retaliatory actions as U.S. puts promised tariffs on hold for 30 days

The Yukon government is pausing its planned retaliatory measures against punishing new tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump, but the premier says the territory will keep working to be "ready to respond if needed in the future."

Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai said earlier on Monday that the territorial government would be cancelling orders of American alcohol products through the territory's publicly-owned liquor corporation, and would review procurement rules to see if it's possible to block U.S. companies from bidding on government contracts.

Pillai said other measures, including tolls for American drivers travelling on the Alaska Highway, were also possible.

The U.S. tariffs were to come into effect on Tuesday, but after a meeting with Trudeau on Monday, Trump said he would pause the tariffs for 30 days.

In a statement Monday afternoon, Pillai called the pause a "step in the right direction," and said Yukon would put its retaliatory measures on hold.

However, he also said uncertainty remains for Yukoners and Canadians, and he urged Yukoners to support local businesses and prioritize Canadian products.

"These tariffs — if and when they come into effect — threaten jobs, increase costs for families and disrupt supply chains that have benefited both sides of the border, for decades," the statement reads.

"We must take this as a wake-up call to strengthen our own economy by prioritizing purchases that are made locally or in Canada."  

Pillai spoke to Yukon Morning host Elyn Jones about the issue earlier on Monday, before the 30-day pause was announced.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You met with leaders across the country again on the weekend, including the prime minister. What was that conversation like?

It was very focused on the approach that we would be taking as a country around the retaliatory measures. It also focused on each individual province and territory talking about what they felt they could do. This approach will be both the tariffs that we've seen from the federal government and then looking at a multi-phased approach on retaliatory measures.

Of course, you saw this weekend the first couple of things that we're looking at here in the Yukon, which is a focus on both looking at the U.S. products, not purchasing them anymore, looking to pull products a bit off our shelves and also looking at ways for us to just ensure we're buying Canadian when it comes to procurement.

Was there anything at the meeting on the weekend asked of the Yukon specifically?

No. Everybody's been asked to go back and do this work .... We've been working on this over the last month. We've been back and forth in our conversations, both at the Council of the Federation table, which includes all the premiers, and at the first ministers meetings to look at how we were going to collectively respond to this.

So our team at intergovernmental [affairs] working with economic development and other departments have been putting together a list of an approach and some of the first things we could do, and then what the next phase of measures look like. It's a very surgical approach on the tariffs.

There's been studies done over the last month to look at many political leaders in the United States that are close to President Trump, understanding exactly what products are produced in their home constituencies and then understanding ... what you can do to impact them and put pressure on the president.

Tell us specifically how the Yukon government is responding. Give us some examples of what will be happening.

We won't put all our cards on the table, but I'll say that our first measures are the liquor and procurement. Those are significant things.

A lot of Yukoners reached out to me yesterday. There's a lot of different concepts and ideas on the table, some easier to activate than others. In Nova Scotia, for instance, where they have a toll system in place on a road, they're increasing tolls. We've seen Yukoners reach out and say you should be doing something in the Alaska Highway. British Columbia might be looking to do something on the Alaska Highway. So we're looking to work in conjunction to understand what that would look like.

The difference for us of course is we just don't have toll booths set up already. So you have to stand up the infrastructure that's required.

You [also] have to look at the implications of that. I think it's about 12,000 U.S. individuals or cars are coming up the highway so you can do the math on any number of what that toll would look like. But we were successful in raising over $40 million from the U.S. to invest in the highway. So you're taking into consideration, is that money going to be at risk because of the reduction in spending by the U.S. or does the toll put pressure on? 

What industries or areas of the Yukon would be hardest hit by American tariffs?

We have folks here that build products for housing and building like Northerm [Windows and Doors] that have subsidiaries in Alaska. We have Hecla [Mining Company], which is exporting materials like silver and lead, and you have to take into consideration what their input is.

We don't have the same level of exposure as provinces do. And that's pretty much the same for all three territories. But I mean, if you look at the comments that came from the U.S. government on Feb. 1, there's this goalpost being put on Canada that in many ways is almost unachievable.

This [Trump] administration came into government with a goal of raising $1 trillion in new revenue and they felt that tariffs would be the mechanism. They went back in time to the early part of the 1900s when the U.S. did this before and they felt that that would be the appropriate measure.

So when you see what came out on the weekend and it says, you know, we want to see a reduction in the impacts from fentanyl in the United States, knowing that Canada is this minute contributor to that [problem], the overwhelming feeling from federal officials and all of our premiers is that we're being set up into a position where, again, what we're being asked to achieve is almost impossible because we're not contributing [to the fentanyl problem] the way the Americans are saying or that Trump is saying.

When it comes to what you're doing, taking American products off the shelf at the liquor store, or Yukoners trying to buy Canadian, is that just symbolic? Will it really make a difference?

I think we have to do every possible thing we can. I spoke with [Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader] Doug Ford last night for about half an hour.  I've asked him to ensure that we at the Council of the Federation talked to grocers and that we make it easy for Canadians to be able to walk into a grocery store and understand ... which products are Canadian. I know people are doing it on their own. I think it's really important that we do that.

And over and above that, how do we as governments, Crown corporations, organizations that are doing incredibly large spending programs, make sure that we're also doing the same thing? So those are all measures that are important as well.