The Trudeau government has told President Donald Trump he needs to get rid of the punishing U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum if there is any hope of successfully renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau said that message was communicated clearly to Trump during his meetings at the G7 leaders’ summit...
Trudeau said he told Trump directly that Canadians “particularly did not take lightly the fact that it’s based on a national security reason” and held firm to the government’s threat of retaliation.
“Canadians are polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”
But Trump appeared to take Trudeau’s criticism personally, and denounced the prime minister hours after he departed the G7 summit on Saturday...
Earlier while still in Quebec, Trump said he wants to make a deal on NAFTA, and he’s open to working with the current pact or striking separate agreements with Canada and Mexico — as long as they agree to renegotiate every five years...
Canada wants a deal too, but Trudeau reiterated the government view that the U.S.’s proposed five-year sunset clause is a non-starter.
Canada is now adding the tariffs to its list of deal breakers on NAFTA. Morneau said progress is being made, but more work needs to be done to conclude the negotiations.
“We’re not going to be able to do that work under the threat of tariffs. And we’re not going to be able to do that work when our retaliatory tariffs, which are real, they’re significant,” Morneau said in a Saturday interview.
The government announced it would impose more than $16.6-billion in retaliatory tariffs, effective July 1, on a variety of U.S. goods. Mexico and the European Union have also planned retaliatory tariff packages.
Trump said that would be a bad idea...
This was excerpted from 11 June 2018 edition of The Canadian Press.