WASHINGTON — U. S. President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the U.S. is pointedly freezing out Canada from North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations.Trump’s negotiators have been meeting with Mexican negotiators in Washington over the past two weeks. Senior officials from all three countries have said the U.S. has chosen the two-way talks for temporary practical reasons, not to send a message to Canada. But Trump, who has repeatedly railed against Canadian dairy tariffs and complained about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, suggested otherwise.“We’re not negotiating with Canada right now. Their tariffs are too high, their barriers are too strong, so we`re not even talking to them right now,” Trump said at a televised cabinet meeting. “We`ll see how that works out. It`ll only work out to our favour.”Adam Austen, spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, disputed Trump’s claim that the U.S. is not talking to Canada at all.“Minister Freeland, Ambassador (David) MacNaughton and the Canadian negotiating team are in regular contact with their counterparts and we look forward to continuing these important discussions in the coming weeks,” Austen said.Austen would not provide specifics about recent communication.Trump’s explanation for Canada’s exclusion differed from the one offered two weeks ago by one of his top officials. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in late July that the administration was focusing on Mexico because there were more difficult issues to resolve with Mexico than there were with Canada.“Mexico is, intellectually, the more complicated of the two, so if we can solve that, we should be able to fill in with Canada,” Ross said.Trump spoke on the one-year anniversary of the launch of the NAFTA renegotiation. He has soured on Canada in recent months, apparently angry at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s criticism of the tariffs he i ...
|
