The President of Unifor Local 444 says the 25 per cent tariff will be devastating for auto manufacturing for both sides of the border.
Speaking on AM800's Mornings with Mike and Meg, local 444 president James Stewart says the cost to produce vehicles in Canada and the United States will rise expedientially with the tariffs.
He says there will also be a slow down in production causing layoffs and short term job loss.
"The immediate effect really is the slow down in production that we're expecting to see and that's going to cause layoffs," he says. "It's going to cause job loss in the short term and hopefully we can keep working to mitigate it. The goal has to be to try and eliminate tariffs."
Stewart says there will be a cost everytime a part crosses the border.
"We build parts and the parts aren't built in Canada and shipped to the states, not built in Mexico and shipped to the states, they're built in all three countries for each vehicle and shipped across the border numerous times," says Stewart.
He believes in the next couple of weeks, there will be a slow down in production as the cost of building a vehicle becomes too great.
"What it will do is open where the tariffs haven't been added, the offshore producers, the ones that aren't producing in North America, that's about a quarter of all sales in Canada and the U.S., they're going to get a free ride and become more attractive to the consumer in the states," says Stewart.
Unifor Local 444 represents workers at the Windsor Assembly Plant along with workers at feeder plants.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing 25 per cent tariffs across the board against Canada, with the exception of energy, which will be hit with a 10 per cent tariff, effective Tuesday.
Prime Minster Justin Trudeau promised Canada would hit back by slapping 25 per cent tariffs on $155 billion worth of American goods in retaliation.