Canada ‘doesn’t have a military,’ Duffy says as cross-border trade war ignites
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 57/100
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy fired back at Canada on live television Sunday morning after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced “dollar-for-dollar” retaliatory tariffs in response to the new 50% U.S. tariffs.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday , Duffy said it was “foolish” for Canada to start a trade war with the United States, in part, because America’s northern neighbor “doesn’t have a military.” Canada does have a military, though it is much smaller than the U.S. military.
“We’re great trading partners … but Canada gets the benefit of trading with the U.S. way more than the U.S. gets the benefit of trading with Canada,” Duffy said.
“It’s a country that doesn’t have a military. It’s a country that has a single-payer healthcare system that’s failing. They have record-high euthanasia rates,” he continued. “And so to think that they’re gonna go to war with Donald Trump and actually win that war with the U.S., I think it’s foolish on their part.”
A trade deal between the U.S. and Canada collapsed ahead of a Friday night deadline, allowing the president’s 50% tariffs to take effect. The tariffs apply to roughly $28 billion worth of Canadian products imported into the U.S. In response, Carney vowed to implement matching tariffs on Sept. 8.
The prime minister attributed the breakdown in trade negotiations to “last-minute changes” the Trump administration tried to make. One of the changes to the deal’s framework was that Canada could not strike trade agreements with other countries, Carney said. He called the alleged U.S. efforts to restrict its other trade partnerships “unacceptable.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative quickly released a statement denying Carney’s allegations of eleventh-hour changes made to the deal, to which the federal agency said Canada had already agreed last week.
“Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days,” the USTR said . “In addition, Canada is continuing to maintain its prolonged retaliation against the United States, including, among other things, flat-out prohibitions on certain American goods and services.”
More than 24 hours after the deal fell apart, President Donald Trump took shots at the northern U.S. ally.
“Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post early Sunday morning. “They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of Tariffs. No more!!!”
Meanwhile, Duffy defended the president’s trade policy position on Canada in the wake of the collapsed trade talks.
“President Trump was the first one to go, ‘You know what, that’s not the kind of relationship that friends should have.’ And so the president’s calling them out,” Duffy told Fox News. “I think you’re gonna see Mark Carney come to the table very, very quickly because it’s gonna be devastating for his country.”
Read the original at Washington Examiner →
Open in TruthVane →