Trump Gives High Praise to New Mexican President, Issues Major Threat to Canada
Economic relations with one of America’s neighbors are improving, but another neighbor is failing to collaborate with the United States, President Donald Trump said Friday.
“Deal with Mexico is coming along nicely. Autoworkers and farmers must be taken care of or there will be no deal. New President of Mexico has been an absolute gentleman. Canada must wait. Their Tariffs and Trade Barriers are far too high. Will tax cars if we can’t make a deal!” Trump tweeted.
Deal with Mexico is coming along nicely. Autoworkers and farmers must be taken care of or there will be no deal. New President of Mexico has been an absolute gentleman. Canada must wait. Their Tariffs and Trade Barriers are far too high. Will tax cars if we can’t make a deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2018
Canada issued a statement in response, the Montreal Gazette reported.
“Our focus is unchanged. We’ll keep standing up for Canadian interests as we work toward a modernized trilateral NAFTA agreement,” the statement said.
Trump’s tweet was not the first time he has said talks with Mexico are going better than those with Canada.
“We have had very good sessions with Mexico and with the new president of Mexico, who won overwhelmingly, and we’re doing very well on our trade agreement,” Trump said last month, according to Reuters.
“So we’ll see what happens. We may do a deal separately with Mexico and we’ll negotiate with Canada at a later time. But we’re having very good discussions with Mexico,” he said.
In response, Mexico said it was committed to a trilateral agreement to keep the North American Free Trade Agreement partnership in place.
“The fact that this time we’re going to Washington for a bilateral is just a sequence of things,” said Mexico’s Secretary of the Economy Ildefonso Guajardo, according to CBC.
“It’s just a method, not a direction,” Guajardo said. “We’re not moving in the direction of a bilateral agreement. We still want a trilateral NAFTA.”
Countries that have treated us unfairly on trade for years are all coming to Washington to negotiate. This should have taken place many years ago but,
as the saying goes, better late than never!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2018
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has said that the Trump administration will keep talks going with both nations.
“We’re continuing both of those tracks. We see a lot of progress on the conversations with Mexico, and if we could make a bilateral deal with them, we’re certainly very happy to do that. But, again, we’re continuing both conversations, both tracks.”
On Wednesday, Breitbart had reported that talks with Canada were not making progress as Trump was moving toward trade agreements with major economic partners. Former New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley said Trump would reach a trade agreement with Mexico before November, and held out hope for a deal with the European Union.
“Likely not Canada. China will be the bogeyman. You’ll see China continue to struggle. And then the idea will be can we get a big trade deal prior to (Trump’s) next election” in 2020, Farley said.
Earlier this year, Trump slapped tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel exports. Canada then announced retaliatory tariffs on American goods exported to Canada.
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