Trump pledges to do 'anything' he can to help Canada in its dispute with China

June 20, 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump said today that he'll do whatever he can to help Canada in its ongoing diplomatic dispute with China.

Trump made the remarks during a meet-and-greet in the Oval Office with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today in advance of talks on ratifying the newly renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement.

"Anything I can do to help Canada, I will be doing," Trump said...

Not ruling out more tariffs

Switching to trade, Trump refused today to rule out further tariffs on Canada and Mexico. The U.S. imposed tariffs on Canadian and Mexican steel (25 per cent) and aluminum (10 per cent) last June, citing national security concerns.

The U.S. said it was concerned in part about cheap foreign steel finding its way through Canada into the U.S. 

Canada took measures to prevent the transshipment of steel into the U.S. and struck a deal with Washington to monitor any potential surges in steel products that were unfairly subsidized abroad and then dumped in the U.S. via Canada. 

"We'll see," Trump said when asked if he would reimpose tariffs. "They have to do what they have to do. We understand that. We can't have tremendous shipments of certain products, we understand that very well.

"They've been lifted, as you know, and there won't be hopefully transshipping. If there's transshipping I'll call Justin and he'll take care of it and if he doesn't, I'll probably call him a second time and if he doesn't, then we'll have to talk, right."

"We'll be fine," Trudeau replied.

Ratifying USMCA

One of the main reasons for Trudeau's trip to Washington was to discuss the ratification of the new NAFTA, retitled by Trump as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which will require the support of Democrats to clear the U.S. House of Representatives.  

"(Ratification) is really subject to the Democrats, so let's see what happens," Trump said. "But I really believe that (Speaker) Nancy Pelosi in the House will approve it and I think the Senate will approve it rapidly."

Trump said the deal was good for all three countries and that he hopes Congress "can do what they have to do."

Trudeau touted the deal as good for workers in all three countries and said Canada was moving forward with the ratification process in lockstep with the U.S...

This was excerpted from the 20 June 2019 edition of CBC News.

 


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Topic(s): 
Rules of Origin & Trade Agreements / CUSMA/USMCA / World Economy & Politics
Information Source: 
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