Following collapse of a trade deal with Canada, US President Donald Trump hit out at the neighbouring country and said Ottawa wants the benefits of being state, even though it is not one, while claiming that it has been charging Washington for years, which he cannot allow anymore.
“Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” the 80-year-old Republican leader said in a post on Truth Social. “They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of Tariffs. No more!!!”
The trade deal between the US and Canada collapsed this week, with Washington imposing 50 per cent tariffs on USD 20 billion worth of Canadian products. Washington’s move drew an immediate reaction from Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, who blamed the “last-minute changes” by the Americans that caused the fallout of the trade deal.
He said the proposed terms by the US were “unfair and uneconomic”, questioning the deal’s reliability.
“In recent days, the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair and undermined the net benefits for Canada, and called into question the reliability of any deal,” he had said on Saturday. “We cannot accept what they’ve offered, and we will not give what they’ve asked.”
Why the deal collapsed?
The Canadians sought relief from the Trump administration over autos, steel and aluminum, and according to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Washington had agreed to reduce its tariffs on them. Speaking to the New York Times (NYT) on Saturday, Greer said this would have given Canada “the most preferential treatment of any trading partner.”
But later, Carney said the deal collapsed because the restrictions that were imposed by the Trump administration on Canada’s trade deals with other countries.
US negotiators also made unacceptable “threats” to the French language and “Quebec culture,” he said, referring to the French-speaking province in eastern Canada.
The escalating trade war was met with anger by Democratic lawmakers and governors from border states including Minnesota, New York and Washington, who blamed Trump for triggering chaos that will raise costs on US businesses and families.
“Needlessly picking fights with our allies and raising prices here at home. That’s Trump’s economic policy in a nutshell,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on X.
Beyond the latest tariffs, the US and Canada still have to agree on revisions to the North American free trade agreement, USMCA, which Trump declined to renew in its current form.
Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st US state have also antagonized Canadians.
(With inputs from AFP)
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