A trade deal between the United States and Canada failed in what is being called a “missed opportunity” on behalf of America’s northern neighbor.
In a statement to reporters on Friday after the deal’s collapse, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer said, “Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week. Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada upended the careful balance reached in the past days,” according to Politico.
“This is a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the U.S.,” he added.
Now, Canada is facing 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of its products, the Associated Press (AP) reported Friday.
Leftist Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who in October left a trade meeting with President Donald Trump empty-handed, said the results of the negotiations had “not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians.”
He then blamed government officials in Washington, DC, for the result.
“Last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal. As a result, this evening, I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and have directed Canada’s negotiators to return to Ottawa,” adding his country would match the coming tariffs “dollar for dollar.”
In a social media post regarding the failed deal, the USTR said, “Tonight, Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week.”
The post continued:
In addition, Canada is continuing to maintain its prolonged retaliation against the United States, including, among other things, flat-out prohibitions on certain American goods and services.
For decades, Canada has enjoyed the most favorable access to the U.S. market of any country. And from the beginning of President Trump’s trade program, Canada has continued to enjoy the best treatment in the world, even after — like China — retaliating against the United States. This week, the United States agreed to provide even better treatment to Canada, offering significant tariff reductions on steel, aluminum, autos, and lumber. The U.S. offer was also forward-looking, and included a historic economic and national security partnership to cooperate on export controls, combat transshipment, enhance digital trade, and align certain external tariffs.
The offer would have led to supply chain coordination on aerospace, complementary actions to address unfair trade practices, critical minerals cooperation, increased enforcement against imports produced with forced labor, and the announcement of formal U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) negotiations.
“This is a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the United States, which is the fastest growing economy in the G7,” the USTR concluded.
In July, Trump called smoke pollution from Canada’s wildfires affecting the United States “totally unacceptable,” adding the costs the U.S. is incurring will be added to tariffs on Canada, per Breitbart News.
Trump later imposed a 50 percent duty on a variety of Canadian goods over “discrimination” of American autos.
Read the full article here