After meeting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Canada’s foreign minister said her country “would respond appropriately” if the United States pushes for new tariffs on Canadian products as part of NAFTA negotiations, said Reuters. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could meet President Trump as early as next week; NAFTA would be a top issue.
Canada ranks second as a market for U.S. farm exports and as the source of U.S. food and ag imports, according to USDA — 16 percent of total exports and 19 percent of imports. The major U.S. farm exports to Canada were prepared foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, and juices, according to the U.S. trade representative, while the leading imports from Canada were snack food, red meat, livestock, vegetable oil and processed fruits and vegetables.
To date, Trump has focused most of his criticism of NAFTA on Mexico, the No. 3 buyer of U.S. farm exports and top supplier of food and ag imports. “Canada is trying to persuade the new administration and senior politicians that its especially close ties with the United States mean the country should be spared protectionist measures,” said Reuters.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, from the dairy state of Wisconsin, raised the issue of access to Canada’s dairy market during a session with Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, “suggesting that Canada’s protectionist ‘supply management’ system could be on the table in the North American free-trade agreement renegotiations,” said the Toronto Globe and Mail. A poll commissioned by the newspaper “found that 58 percent of Canadians surveyed would support a trade war with the United States if the Trump administration slapped new tariffs on Canadian exports.”