U.S. President Donald Trump publicly bragged about pressuring Canada to accept his terms for a new North American free-trade agreement after he said the negotiators were “not at all nice” during the talks, but he “made them nice.”
During a long and rambling speech during an annual spring dinner for the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Trump took aim at several of his country’s trading partners including China and Canada. The president claimed nearly every nation was taking advantage of the U.S. when it comes to trade.
“Everybody has a trade surplus on us,” he stated.
From there, the president pivoted to boast about his achievement renegotiating the free trade deal, known as USMCA, agreed by the U.S., Mexico, and Canada in late September. However, U.S. Democrats have signalled in recent days the pact should be revisited to satisfy some of their concerns before it’s officially ratified in all three countries.
“We have the USMCA – I hope you guys can get it approved,” he said to his audience. “I mean the problem we have is that you have a very hostile group. You have a very, very hostile group on the other side and they don’t want to see us have success and the USMCA is a great deal.”
At this point in the speech, Trump spoke specifically about the challenge of negotiating with Canada in particular.
“Canada is very, very tough. We love Canada,” he said. “We think of the beautiful song, the ice hockey games. O Canada, isn’t it beautiful? But in the meantime, they knock the hell out of us on trade, and they have been doing it for a long time and they’re very tough.”
“They’re not at all nice about that situation, but we’ve made them nice. We’ve made them nice and they’re not happy about what happened.”
Trump went on to declare that U.S. farmers would be able to sell their goods to Canada under the new agreement, which “they were restricted from doing.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Canada was the top market for American agricultural exports in 2017 with $20.5 billion worth of goods being sold across the border.
Under the renegotiated deal, U.S. dairy farmers will have a 3.6-per-cent-share of Canada’s market for poultry, eggs, and dairy products.
It’s not the first time Trump has remarked on Canada’s negotiating style during the talks. In September, the president accused Canada of treating the U.S. “very badly.” Earlier that year, Trump said Canada was “very difficult to deal with” and “very spoiled” during ongoing North America free trade negotiations.
Trump begins speaking about Canada at the 1:45:00 mark of the video below.
