Daniel Dale - Washington
Bureau Chief
12 hrs ago
Canada and it only hurts
American workers.”
WASHINGTON—Canada
has been taking advantage of the niceness of the United States,
President Donald Trump’s spokesperson said Monday.
“We’ve
been very nice to Canada for many years, and they’ve taken
advantage of that. Particularly advantage of our farmers,” press
secretary Sarah Sanders said when asked to address the retaliatory
tariffs
Canada imposed on the U.S. products on Sunday.
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Canada is the top
destination for U.S. agricultural exports, according
to Trump administration data,
buying $20.5 billion (U.S.) in 2017. And American farmers are
generally
supportive of the North American Free Trade Agreement,
under which U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico have
quadrupled.
But
Trump has recently
pointed
to Canada’s dairy
protectionism,
which involves import quotas and high tariffs, as evidence that
Canada is generally treating the U.S. unfairly on agriculture.
The
White House has repeatedly
denounced Canada
in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s criticism of
Trump’s 25-per-cent
tariff on Canadian steel and 10-per-cent tariff on Canadian
aluminum.
Trudeau
responded to those tariffs with tariffs
on 235 U.S. products,
from steel bars to ketchup to sleeping bags. The list was designed
to apply pressure to Trump and fellow Republicans by hurting
companies in conservative states.
“Escalating
tariffs against the United States does nothing to help Canada and
it only hurts American workers,” Sanders said. “The president
is working to fix the broken system, and he’s going to continue
pushing for that.”
Asked
if Trump is winning this trade battle, given the retaliation from
Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union, Sanders said: “Again,
the president is focused not on the short term but on the long
term. And he wants to make sure that we’re doing things that help
protect American workers and protect American industry, and he is
going to keep pushing to make sure we have good trade deals.”
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