US trade secretary Howard Lutnick rejects the question of whether the US free trade with Canada is dead, calling the concept “silly” and saying a significant amount of Canadian goods that come to the US tariff under the current North American free trade agreement.
“We have a plan called (US and Mexican and Canada agreement), virtually 75 % of all the goods coming from Mexico and Canada have already become tariffs,” Lutnick said in an interview Face a nation It was shown on Sunday morning at CBS.
But in the same breath, Lutnick suggested Canada tariffs for staying here.
“The president understands that we have to open the market. Canada is not open to us. They have to open their markets. Unless they are willing to open their markets, they will pay a tariff,” he added.
The secretary’s comments will come days after Prime Minister Mark Carney told French journalists that “there is not much evidence at the moment” that the United States is willing to cut the contract with Canada without some tariffs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who spoke in French before Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, said “we have to stabilize” Canada’s situation when asked for potential for a non -tariff agreement with the United States
But the Prime Minister also said on Tuesday that Canada has “almost free trade” with the United States with a reference to the tariff abuse of Canadian goods, which is known as the Canada-Imexico (Cusma), known as Canada’s USMCA.
According to the RBC report published last monthAbout 79 % of US imports from Canada were “explicitly obliged” in January 2025.
This figure rose to about 89 % in April.
“Why should our country be open when they are closed? This is the 80-year-old wrong that President Trump tries to repair, and companies really enjoy it,” Lutnick told host Margaret Brennan.
Cusma negotiations
Lutnick also told Brennan that Trump is “definitely going to negotiate (Cusma), but it’s a year today.”
“It is perfectly sensible for the president to negotiate again. He wants to protect American jobs. He does not want cars built in Canada or Mexico when they can be built in Michigan or Ohio. It is just better for American workers,” he added.
Cusma is not officially renewed until 2026 but some Canadian business executives and other have urged a federal government Start to start economic stability.
There are also lingering questions as to whether the negotiations provide a second trio trade agreement.
Last November, Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford ditched Mexico and signed a bilateral agreement with the United States – Moving Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith agreed to investigate.
This proposal sent cooling through Canada and Mexico relationships, but Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum seem to close the opening.
Both leaders met each other in June during the G7 Summit in the chicken, in the Alta, and “waited for a meeting to meet in Mexico in the coming months”, according to A press release Published on the Prime Minister’s website.
The negotiations of the Canada-US Trade continue
Carney and his negotiating team are still working with the agreement with Trump, hoping to avoid US President’s latest threat – a 35 % tariff for all Canadian goods.
The US President threatened to threaten in a letter sent to the Prime Minister in a letter sent to the Prime Minister. He said the tariffs would take effect on August 1 and that the United States would increase charges if Canada responded.
Lutnick said that the White House cuts better agreements with large countries that open their finances to “livestock farm, fishermen, farmers and businesses”, but if they hold the tariff barriers in place, “it looks fair” to set charges.
US President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to hit a 35 % tariff for all Canadian goods. Trump’s latest threat came in a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, which the president sent to social media on his site, the truth Social.
In his letter, Trump mentioned fentanyl to “overthrow” to the United States of Canada as the cause of his most recent threat of tariffs, even though the data still shows Minimum amounts of medicine cross the Canadian and US border compared to the US -Mexican border.
Trump also took a shot in the Canadian supply management system, which is a long -term annoying substance that leads to Canada to set up to 400 % of American dairy products.
High Canadian tariffs will only apply if USMCA’s agreed tariff quotas in USMCA are reached or exceeded.
International Dairy Association in the United States says that Americans have never got close to excess quotasBut it also claims that it is due to “protectionist measures” from Canada that restricts export.
Liberal government has retained it won’t bite Supply management.
