U.S. ambassador hopeful Canada and U.S. will reach new trade deal

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra joins Jeff Keele to talk about cross-border relations, tariffs, and his visit to Winnipeg.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says there’s “a chance” Canada and the U.S. will be able to hash out a new trade deal in the coming days, ahead of a looming deadline to do so.

“You’ve got at least 48 hours, and maybe up to 72 hours,” Hoekstra said Tuesday in an interview on CTV Morning Live Winnipeg. “But a lot of things happen at the close of a negotiation. Hopefully there’s a good level of cooperation between the participants, and they get there.”

The U.S. and Canada have been in a trade war since February, when U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods. The two countries have been negotiating a new trade deal for months, with a fast-approaching deadline of Aug. 1, at which point Trump has vowed to increase levies to 35 per cent.

Several lawmakers — including Prime Minister Mark Carney — have signalled some baseline level of tariffs is likely to continue, with the goal being to agree on a stable rate.

Hoekstra said Trump’s goal is to move more manufacturing jobs to the United States, and that the president has been clear since the beginning “every country will pay some level of tariffs.”

“The president came into office and had a number of challenges that he wanted to fix,” Hoekstra said, pointing to economic and border crises, defence priorities, and a stated goal of “revitalizing the American economy.”

“That’s good for us, and I think what’s good for the U.S. is good for Canada,” Hoekstra also said. “Just like if Canada’s prospering, there are spillover effects into the United States when we’re both doing well.”

The White House has clarified the higher 35 per cent tariffs going into effect Friday will only apply to goods that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S. trade agreement, which is up for review next year.

Other sectoral levies, including on aluminum and steel, and autos, are also in place, with Trump threatening additional duties on copper imports, also as of Aug. 1.

The ambassador was in Winnipeg Tuesday to speak with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

‘Americans still love Canada’

During his interview on Wednesday, Hoekstra was asked about comments he made at a news conference in Washington state last week, during which he spoke about some Canadians choosing not to travel to the U.S. while Trump is in office, while some provinces are choosing to remove American alcohol from store shelves.

At the time, he said Trump and his team have referred to Canada as being “mean and nasty,” and hard to negotiate with, as a result.

“I’ve talked to a lot of Canadians, and I will be the first to admit I still don’t fully understand how personal and how aggressive some Canadians have become on this issue,” Hoekstra said Wednesday, adding he doesn’t notice the same feelings in the United States.

“Americans still love Canada,” he said. “We’re coming here. We’re spending American dollars in Canada because we view Canada as a friendly country.”

“We both have warts,” he added. “Okay, you don’t like the 51st state. Guess what? We didn’t like it that you didn’t pay for NATO for years. But that didn’t stop us from coming to Canada or evaluating Canadian products based on their merit and their value.”

American officials, including Trump, have been vocal in their criticism of Canada for years for failing to meet the NATO defence spending target of two per cent of GDP on defence. Carney pledged last month to reach the goal — first agreed to by allies in 2014 — this fiscal year, later committing Canada to a new five per cent target by 2035.

With files from CTV’s Jeff Keele and The Canadian Press