“Canada – USA Tariff Wars”

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday slammed Canada as trade negotiators prepare to review the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement this year.

Asked at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC, about Canada’s former trade chief suggesting time is on Canada’s side in the talks, Lutnick responded: “That is like the worst strategy I’ve ever heard. They suck. They — look, we are a $30 trillion economy, right?”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark “Carney has a problem with us; he gets on a plane and he goes to China,” Lutnick continued. “Does he think China’s… going to buy his stuff? China is an entirely export-driven economy. So what did he do? He came back and said, ‘Oh, we’ll take their electric cars.’ I mean, is this nuts?”

The Canada stuff starts at the 13:00 minute mark and it isn’t good news.

Worse is that Lutnick speaks highly of the Japanese, Koreans and also Europe for their efforts in striking the sort of deal Canada can only dream about.

With the future of free trade between Canada and the United States unclear at best, a look to the past could provide hints at where critical exports of energy fit into a deal in the future.

Previous versions of the free trade agreements between the two countries used to include a section called “energy proportionality,” which restricted Canada from reducing the percentage of its total oil, gas or similar exports to the United States — even in the event of an emergency.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has consistently argued that Canada currently has the best trade deal with the United States, with roughly 90% of Canada-U.S. trade shielded from President Donald Trump’s tariffs thanks to the Canada-United-States-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (CUSMA).

He’s not wrong that the CUSMA has shielded Canada from the brunt of Trump’s tariffs. In fact, Canada would be in a deep recession today if such a large portion of cross-border trade weren’t protected by the CUSMA.

Negotiations to renew ‌North America’s free-trade deal are likely to extend beyond July 1 and lead to separate agreements with Canada and Mexico, the top U.S. negotiator says.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told attendees at an April 7 event at the Hudson Institute in Washington that the White House may need to take steps to reframe the way the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) functions to successfully negotiate with each country.