Trump in no rush for Canada trade talks
Washington: US President Donald Trump said he was in no rush to resume trade talks with Canada, accusing the neighbouring country of treating the United States badly and saying any eventual agreeme6t would require Ottawa to be “honest” with Washington.
Trump made the remarks when asked by reporters whether he would resume trade negotiations with Canada before the US midterm elections.
“I don’t know. Canada behaves very badly with the United States and I don’t know,” Trump said before departing aboard Marine One.
“We caught them in the act; they charged us a lot of tariffs that nobody knew about except me. And it will work out eventually, but I don’t know about — I’m in no rush.”
Trump offered no timetable for restarting negotiations and did not identify the Canadian tariffs he was referring to.
His remarks indicated that he did not view an early resumption of negotiations with Ottawa as a priority, despite saying that the trade dispute would eventually be resolved.
The President asserted about the imbalance he sees in the commercial relationship between the two countries.
“You know, Canada does all their business with us, we do very little business with them,” Trump said.
“And all we ask of one thing in Canada, they have to be honest. They are not honest with the United States; they’ve been ripping us off for years.”
Trump did not provide figures or examples during the exchange to support the accusation.
His comments were among the sharper foreign economic policy remarks during a wide-ranging interaction with reporters before his departure.
The President did not say whether his administration was currently engaged with Canadian officials at other levels or what conditions would have to be met before formal trade negotiations could resume.
He also did not specify whether his reference to resuming talks before the midterm elections meant he was ruling out negotiations during that period. His response instead repeatedly stressed that he was not in a hurry to restart the process.