U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday it was “time to teach Canada you can’t do this anymore,” just days after trade talks between the neighboring countries broke down.
“I had a deal, that was a pretty good deal, you know, quite good,” Trump told Glenn Beck in an interview. “They don’t have anything that we have to have, okay, we can get by. I mean, there are a couple of things that would make it a little inconvenient, but we can get them elsewhere. And it’s time to teach Canada you can’t do this anymore.”
Trump imposed new 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian imports on Saturday after talks between the two countries collapsed.
Canada hit back on Tuesday with retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion worth of U.S. annual imports and rolled out aid for businesses and workers, matching Washington’s latest duties dollar for dollar. They take effect on September 8.
Trump also announced 50% tariffs on Canadian autos and parts that will take effect on January 1. Canada has said that the U.S. refused to extend tariff relief to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles as one reason it did not reach an agreement.
The Canadian Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.
In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that there are currently no open channels to the Canadians at the moment, but said he has a good relationship with Canadian Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who is leading on U.S. trade.
“If there’s further retaliation from the Canadian side, of course we’re not going to just sit down and take that,” Greer said. “I know how people are feeling in Canada and what they think,” he said. “We have our own trade policy and we’ll proceed with it in the way that’s best for the United States.”
White House adviser Peter Navarro predicted on Wednesday that the deal Canada will ultimately strike with the U.S. will be worse than what was offered last week.
“It just is not going to end well for Canada and I predict that the deal you got, that you turned your nose up, you’re never going to get that deal again,” Navarro said on C-SPAN. “Whatever you get is going to be less than that.”
Navarro added that the U.S. deal offered to Canada “made me uncomfortable” given how advantageous he thought it was for the U.S.’ northern neighbor.
“There’s no way economically they should have turned it down,” Navarro said.
(Reuters)
