Trump’s man in Ottawa accuses Carney of straining US-Canada ties

Por Zi-Ann Lum — POLITICO – TOP Stories

President Donald Trump’s man in Ottawa blamed Prime Minister Mark Carney for straining relations between the two countries, saying a prosperous relationship is “under attack” in Canada.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra, no fan favorite north of the border, made the remarks Tuesday at a space conference in Gatineau, Quebec, where he also criticized Canada’s approach to the relationship.

“We’re not the ones talking about taking it away and breaking it,” he said in reference to space cooperation, using terms that apply to the larger relationship. The comment caught some in the Canadian audience off guard, given Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada.

It was one of several barbs lobbed at the Carney government, reflecting frayed nerves between Ottawa and Washington after trade talks collapsed again in the summer.

There are dueling narratives about trade tensions. Carney and his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, have interpreted the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian imports as unjustified provocations toward an ally.

The White House argues the issue is strictly business.

“We’re not in a trade war, OK. We’re negotiating some tariffs,” Hoekstra said. “From our perspective, we haven’t ruptured. We don’t view the relationship as ruptured.”

U.S. and Canadian trade negotiators say informal discussions continue, but neither side has initiated a return to formal talks. Carney justified his decision to walk away from the negotiating table in August to stave off Section 338 tariffs, calling last-minute U.S. demands a threat to Canadian sovereignty.

The Section 338 tariffs came into force after talks collapsed. They did not exempt goods covered under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, crossing a line in the bilateral trade dispute, emboldening Carney’s push to increase non-U.S. trade.

Ahead of Carney’s summit with European leaders in Montreal next week, Hoekstra dismissed trade diversification as an old and difficult idea.

“We tried that. It’s really, really hard,” Hoekstra, a former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands during the first Trump administration, said of his own efforts to boost trade with the European Union.

He went on to call the U.S. “one of the most open markets” in the world.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories