It's important to split domestic policy and foreign policy on this. I think the government is doing fine on foreign policy. We have to stop pretending that we're dealing with a rational counterparty. These people are caging children at the border, so discussions on auto tariffs are kind of weird.
From a domestic point of view, though, I think the government needs to plan for the fact that an irrational actor will likely move to impose these tariffs, and it should start to schedule how long it would take to have a successful fight, in either the U.S. district court or international trade court, and start to work backwards from what impact it will have on the industry. Certainly, from an operational point of view, you really have a very short period of time before everything grinds to a halt. Then you have to start picking your spots. The government needs to think about whether it will be in the business of supporting American companies that are making cars and parts and materials in Canada against an action by an American government. Those companies employ Canadians, tens of thousands of them.
It's a big mess that it would be best to avoid if we closed a NAFTA deal. I think foreign and domestic policy converge on “Can we get back to the NAFTA table?” Certainly on automotive, the Canadian industry, or at least the part that I represent, has expressed the view that there are acceptable terms on the table. Let's do what we can and get to it.