Kudlow: Trudeau is ‘overreacting’ to U.S. tariffs

President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser said Sunday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is “overreacting” to new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Larry Kudlow said that the Trump administration’s confrontation with Canada is a “family quarrel” that can still be resolved through negotiations.

“These tariffs may go on for a while or they may not,” he said.

The White House invoked national security concerns last week as justification for the metals tariffs, which it is also imposing on imports from Mexico and the European Union. Trudeau, in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” called that reasoning “quite frankly insulting and unacceptable,” considering the two countries’ long history of military co-operation.

“The fact that the president has moved forward with these tariffs is not just going to hurt Canadian jobs. It’s going to hurt U.S. jobs as well, and neither of those things is something that Canada wants to see,” Trudeau said.

The escalating trade conflict comes as months-long talks toward reworking the North American Free Trade Agreement appear to have collapsed. Trudeau said Thursday that the process imploded after Vice President Mike Pence demanded that a renewed deal expire in five years.

That condition “makes no sense,” Trudeau said Sunday. “You don’t sign a trade deal that automatically expires every five years.”