On Thursday, in Washington, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked whether the Trump administration wants free trade with allies and friends.
“If Canada, for example, came to the United States and said, ‘We’re going to zero tariffs on the United States,” asked Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. “Would [the U.S.] go to zero tariffs?”
“Absolutely not,” replied Mr. Bessent.
Stop kidding yourself: Donald Trump’s threats to Canada aren’t our fault — The Globe and Mail
Trump administration has spent the last year aggressively degrading and dismantling alliances with allies
Who changed that? Not Canada. Who is threatening to further undermine it? Not Canada. Who keeps saying that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement could be done away with, and perhaps replaced with nothing? Not us.
Does it make any difference? The Trump administration convening a conference to try to foster an industrial alliance against China is particularly ironic – given that the Trump administration has spent the last year aggressively degrading and dismantling all such alliances.
Why did China slap tariffs on Canadian canola? Because Canada, following the lead of our U.S. ally, put 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. The Biden administration understood that the North American auto industry was under threat from Chinese industrial strategy, and responded with a North American industrial strategy – a strategy of partnering with allies like Canada.
The Trump administration ripped that up. They’ve bullied automakers to shift production to the U.S. from Canada, and there have been repeated public statements from President Donald Trump and his minions that the integrated North American auto industry should be an America-only industry, and that benefits the integrated North American auto industry how?
Former prime minister Stephen Harper gave a speech in Ottawa. It was the 20th anniversary of the formation of his Conservative government. His audience were mostly Conservatives.
He told them to get over their illusions about the situation next door.
Mr. Harper has described himself as the most pro-American prime minister in Canadian history. But on Wednesday, he said that the main challenge facing our country is “a hostile United States that has openly questioned Canadian sovereignty, that has openly broken the trade commitments that we have made to each other and that regularly issues further threats against us.”