Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau renewed his tough talk on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations, saying Canada won’t be “bowled over” at the negotiating table and work to get the best deal possible for Canada.
Prime Minister Trudeau was responding to U.S. President Donald Trump, who is pushing for a quick resolution to the ongoing trade talks and threatening to tie Canada’s exemption from U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs to a NAFTA deal.
Speaking publicly on Wednesday while greeting steelworkers during an early-morning shift change outside a plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Prime Minister Trudeau said “We’re standing up for ourselves. But we know there’s a win-win-win we can get to… The challenge (the United States) faces is that we’re there at the table, we’re contributing but we’re not just going to be bowled over by them.”
In a phone conversation with Trudeau earlier this week, President Trump called for the talks to wrap up promptly — an echo of his administration’s long-standing desire to resolve the negotiations before upcoming congressional elections in the U.S. later this year and a Mexican presidential election on July 1.
“We’re pushing back on some things that we think might not be the right suggestions, which is what people would expect from Canada,” Prime Minister Trudeau told the steelworkers.
Speaking at a sustainable business forum in Vancouver on Wednesday, International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne echoed the Prime Minister’s comments, saying the government has stood firm at the NAFTA table and will continue to do so.
“We’ve done that with Boeing. We’ve done that with softwood lumber. We’ll continue. We are constructive. We’ll always be at the table,” said Minister Champagne. “We want to modernize NAFTA, a NAFTA that is a win-win-win situation.”
President Trump recently exempted Canada and Mexico from tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum, although the U.S. government has been dropping hints that the exception is only temporary. President Trump has been linking Canada’s fate on tariffs to the outcome of the NAFTA negotiations.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Trudeau said the surplus of steel in the global marketplace is not new and with American tariffs in place, some countries might try to ship their products to the U.S. through Canada. He said Canada would be alert to such scenarios and would work with industry partners and the U.S. to make sure that doesn’t happen.
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