As trade tensions between Canada and the United States escalate, the mayor of St. Thomas in Ontario has highlighted the challenges faced by Canadian manufacturers and urged stronger federal action to negotiate a tariff exemption for the region's struggling auto parts industry. On Feb 1, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25 percent tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada, with a 10 percent increase on Canadian energy products. Two days later, he deferred the tariffs for one month, but announced on Monday that they would take effect on Tuesday. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed not to back down, calling the trade war unjustified. He told a press conference on Tuesday that the Canadian government had hit back with initial tariffs on 30 billion Canadian dollars'(about 20.85 billion U.S. dollars) worth of U.S. goods. The government has also promised to add another 125 billion Canadian dollars'(about 86.89 billion U.S. dollars) worth of tariffs in 21 days. Mayor Joe Preston emphasized the vulnerability of local industries due to the close economic ties between Canada and the U.S. "Our country is next door to the United States, which is why our border has so much cross-border trades. Because we have companies, the same companies on both sides of border are actually doing business on each side, all will be impacted. I think the new president of the United States needs to realize that it has greater impact in just saying it. We continue to have sizable economic growth in this area, in the manufacturing sector. I guess the best thing we do is carrying on doing it -- it's what we do right," he said. "Should tariffs come in and cause grief, cause us some issues, we'll need to then decide what does that mean? We're doing all of the things we can do at the moment, talk about buying local, buying from ourselves, instead of from across the border, and in finding customers from around the world. As a municipality, we have done that, one of our largest construction projects is with Power Co., a Volkswagen subsidiary, the largest automaker in the world. So, we're ready to work with the rest of the world also. But when the United States is maybe 30 minutes from my front door, and the rest of the world is much further away, trade becomes harder," said Preston. Amid the growing trade dispute, Preston, a former federal politician, expressed dissatisfaction with the federal government's handling of the crisis and called for stronger federal leadership to support local industries and communities. "I don't think they're doing near enough. Certainly, the government is not even sitting at the moment, and [with] what appears to be a large amount of fairly disjointed communications happening. Our local regional governments or provincial governments have been spending a lot of time talking to the United States that they do the most work with. It seems to be far more connected and cooperative efforts than we're seeing from the federal government. The federal government is on the cusp of about to have an election and therefore certainly isn't working well together. That may be a better way to put it. We've been throwing everything we can into the negotiations and we're hearing some conversation, but I think it's as much a waiting game on the federal side," he said. SHOTLIST: FILE: Ottawa, Canada - Oct 18, 2017 1. Various of Parliament Hill; national flag of Canada; FILE: Toronto, Canada - 2024 2. National flag of Canada; 3. Traffic; Toronto, Canada - Recent 4. Buildings, national flag of Canada; FILE: Toronto, Canada - July 20, 2022 5. Grocery store exterior; FILE: Toronto, Canada - July 15, 2022 6. Various of goods in supermarket; St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada - Recent 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Preston, mayor, St. Thomas (starting with shots 2-6/ending with shots 8-12): "Our country is next door to the United States, which is why our border has so much cross-border trades. Because we have companies, the same companies on both sides of border are actually doing business on each side, all will be impacted. I think the new president of the United States needs to realize that it has greater impact in just saying it. We continue to have sizable economic growth in this area, in the manufacturing sector. I guess the best thing we do is carrying on doing it -- it's what we do right. Should tariffs come in and cause grief, cause us some issues, we'll need to then decide what does that mean? We're doing all of the things we can do at the moment, talk about buying local, buying from ourselves, instead of from across the border, and in finding customers from around the world. As a municipality, we have done that, one of our largest construction projects is with Power Co., a Volkswagen subsidiary, the largest automaker in the world. So, we're ready to work with the rest of the world also. But when the United States is maybe 30 minutes from my front door, and the rest of the world is much further away, trade becomes harder."; FILE: Toronto, Canada - Feb 6, 2025 8. Various of stores, pedestrians; 9. Labels featuring Canadian national flag; 10. Various of products on shelves; FILE: Ontario, Canada - Feb 6, 2025 11. Various of production line, worker; 12. Various of forklift transporting boxes of syrup product at warehouse; FILE: Ottawa, Canada - Date Unknown 13. Various of Canadian national flags, pedestrians; FILE: Washington D.C., USA - Oct 2024 14. White House; FILE: Washington D.C., USA - Jan 20, 2025 15. White House, traffic; FILE: New York City, USA - Oct 2024 16. Various of port, Statue of Liberty; FILE: Los Angeles, USA - Nov 9, 2017 17. Various of containers, cranes at port; St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada - Recent 18. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Preston, mayor, St. Thomas (starting with shots 12-17) "As a former federal politician, before I retired and became a mayor of this community, I don't think they're doing near enough. Certainly, the government is not even sitting at the moment, and [with] what appears to be a large amount of fairly disjointed communications happening. Our local regional governments or provincial governments have been spending a lot of time talking to the United States that they do the most work with. It seems to be far more connected and cooperative efforts than we're seeing from the federal government. The federal government is on the cusp of about to have an election and therefore certainly isn't working well together. That may be a better way to put it. We've been throwing everything we can into the negotiations and we're hearing some conversation, but I think it's as much a waiting game on the federal side."; FILE: Ottawa, Canada - Date Unknown 19. Canadian national flag; FILE: Ottawa, Canada - Sept 22, 2016 20. Canadian national flag. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]