U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says Canada is jeopardizing the future of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) — also known as USMCA — on free trade due to Canadian counter-tariffs on certain American products.
“Canada is the country that has pulled the rug out from USMCA,” Hoekstra said in an exclusive interview with Global News on Thursday.
“They also started putting tariffs on CUSMA products … We haven’t done that, but Canada has decided ‘That’s fair game. We will call into question CUSMA.’”
Back in March, Ottawa placed a 25 per cent tariff on $29.8 billion in U.S. products, including some imports that fall under the free trade agreement such as orange juice, motorcycles and appliances.
That was in response to tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump that have continued to escalate.
So far, Trump has imposed a 35 per cent tariff on all non-free trade Canadian goods, a 50 per cent levy on Canadian steel, aluminum and copper, and is threatening to bring in more tariffs on Canadian pharmaceuticals.
Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney hinted at unilaterally removing some tariffs on U.S. goods if it could improve ongoing negotiations and help Canadian businesses.
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“We look at what we can do for our industry that’s most effective. In some cases that will be to remove tariffs,” he said.
Hoekstra also said personal attacks from Canadian politicians against the U.S. president are another irritant.
“Some Canadian politicians have decided that they will attack the president personally, they will attack people on his economic team, his negotiating team,” Hoekstra told Global News.
“They will attack them personally, not on the policy, but them personally. Again, that is a Canadian decision. All we do is respond to it.”
Trump has routinely attacked Canadians, spending much of the winter calling on Canada to be annexed as the 51st state and routinely referring to then-prime minister Justin Trudeau as “governor.”
Another key irritant for Hoekstra is the Canadian government reviewing the $74-billion contract to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets from U.S. company Lockheed Martin.
“There’s two countries that have been relatively harsh against the United States, and that’s China and Canada,” Hoekstra said.
Earlier this week, the U.S. and China extended their tariff deal deadline for another 90 days until Nov. 10. But Canada has had no pause and Hoekstra doesn’t see a deal within reach soon.
“I think on both sides, the negotiators feel that they haven’t made enough progress and that there’s enough significant issues out there that are going to take a lot of work,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford warned last week that even if Canada signs a deal with the U.S., he is worried Trump will not honour any free trade commitments.
“At any given time, President Trump — not that he even follows the rules — he could pull the carpet out from underneath us on CUSMA tomorrow with one signature,” Ford said.
Ford also warned he thinks Trump wants to renegotiate the free trade deal as soon as November, ahead of the scheduled start date of next year.
Hoekstra did not rule out the U.S. pushing for earlier renegotiations.
“Lots of things could happen in the future,” he said. “I don’t know what the decision will be. That will be the president’s decision, his team’s decision.”
When asked by Global News last week if Canada was not responding with further retaliation to increasing U.S. tariffs because it could hurt future free trade deal renegotiations, Carney emphasized the importance of Canada preserving its North American free trade deal.
“We’re very conscious that there are a couple of negotiations in sequence and the extent to which those negotiations can be brought together or inform each other that’s in the interest of all parties,” he said.
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