Trump says U.S. ‘not getting along’ with Canada in claim he rebuffed Trudeau
President cites discontent with talks amid bid for last-minute NAFTA summit
U.S. Pr esident Donald Tr ump says he r ejected ar equest for aone-onone meeting with Pr ime Minister Justin Tr udeau to discuss NAFTA this week because Canada’s tar iffs ar e too high and the countr y’s negotiator s have refused to budge.
In awide-r anging news confer - ence in New Yor k on Wednesday, Tr ump also said, “We ar e ver y unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada. We don’t like their representative ver y much.”
It was unclear who Tr ump was r efer r ing to, but For eign Affair s Minister Chrystia Freeland has been the chief NAFTA negotiator for Canada.
“We ar e not getting along with their negotiator s,” he said. “Canada has treated us ver y badly.”
Asked why he refused to meet with Tr udeau, Tr ump said, “Because his tar iffs ar e too high and he doesn’t seem to want to move and I told him, ‘for get about it.’”
Shor tly after Tr ump’s news confer ence, the Pr ime Minister ’s Office disputed the pr esident’s statement — insisting it did not r equest ameeting. Tr udeau’s office declined fur ther comment.
A sour ce told the National Post Wednesday that Jar ed Kushner had been tr ying to or chest rate a last-minute summit between Tr ump, his father -in-law, and Tr udeau in the hope of br eaking logjams in the tr ade talks.
“Ther e ar e some par ties wor king in Washington who think that if the two leader s get together , they may be able to resolve the thornier issues,” said the per son, who was familiar with White House deliber ations.
Tr ump quashed any hopes of that Wednesday and it appear s Canada is unlikely to join the new tr ade deal between the U.S. and Mexico by the Amer ican-imposed Oct. 1 deadline.
While talks ar e expected to continue after this weekend, the lack of adeal r aises the spectre of days or weeks mor e of tr ade uncer tainty for the Canadian economy.
Indeed, the battle lines seemed to stiffen Wednesday, with Ottawa’s ambassador to Washington saying it is up to the Amer icans to bend on crucial issues.
Asked to r ate the chances of an agr eement being r eached this week, ambassador David MacNaughton suggested it was 50-50.
“Ever ybody knows what each other ’s position is on all of the major issues and it’s r eally aquestion of whether or not the U.S. wants to have adeal,” he said at an event organized by the Univer sity of To- r onto’s Munk School of Global affair s and the Politico news outlet.
A day earlier , U.S. Trade Representative Rober t Lighthizer also said many contentious issues r emain, but suggested the pr oblem lies with the Canadian side.
“The fact is that Canada is not making concessions in ar eas that we think ar e essential,” he said.
All thr ee countr ies have pushed to r each an agr eement by Oct. 1 so it can be signed by Mexico’s outgoing pr esident befor e he leaves office Dec. 1, while complying with a U.S. law that says the text of anew tr ade deal must be r eleased 60 days befor e it’s signed.
Both the U.S. and Mexico have said they will pr ess ahead with the bilateral accord they reached last month, with or without Canada.
But negotiator s have indicated Amer ican-Canadian talks will continue even after the deadline this weekend has passed.
“I don’t r eally see the elements of adeal,” said Mar k War ner , a Toronto-based tr ade lawyer . “I don’t see the path to resolving those issues.”
MacNaughton suggested the two sides wer e deadlocked over U.S. demands to scr ap NAFTA’s Chapter -19 mechanism for r esolving disputes, the imposition of U.S. “national-secur ity” tar iffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, and the thr eat of tar iffs on auto expor ts from here.
He also mentioned another tough issue, Amer ican demands for gr eater access to Canada’s supply-managed dair y mar ket.