Canada’s minister of natural resources and the head of the U.S. Dairy Export Council are both calling for calm in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s week of trade flip-flops.
But they say one thing is certain: it’s time for the two countries to sit down and talk trade.
From dairy, to lumber, to energy, to the North American Free Trade Agreement as a whole, it was a week of uncertainty in both Ottawa and Washington. At one point, Trump threatened to pull out of NAFTA entirely, only to change his mind at the last minute.
“I certainly understand the concerns and frustration that Canadians and others may feel with the comments coming out of Washington,” said Tom Vilsack, CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council and a former head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Barack Obama.
“But as we say down here, actions speak louder than words, and I think right now, what we’re looking at is an opportunity to renegotiate.”
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As head of the dairy council, Vilsack said his organization isn’t looking to see Canada dismantle its entire system of supply management in the dairy sector.
“We want to take a look at tariff lines, we want to take a look at ways the Canadian government, in the past, has in our view manipulated the market a little bit to make it more difficult for imports from the U.S. to come in,” Vilsack told The West Block‘s Vassy Kapelos.
“We just want more fairness and more transparency.”
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That may be a big ask for the Canadian government, which faces major pressure from a powerful dairy lobby, but concessions are likely inevitable when the two countries sit down to rejig NAFTA.
“I think that U.S. agriculture is united in its belief that there are good things about NAFTA as it relates to agriculture that need to be preserved,” Vilsack said. “This is not the time to pull out of NAFTA — this is the time to modernize it.”
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Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, who earlier this week was dealing with the imposition of new U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber, said Canada and the U.S. are also long overdue for an agreement on softwood that sticks.
“We tried to make a deal with the Obama administration but it didn’t happen. We’re not prepared to sign any deal. We’ll sign the right deal for Canada.”
Trump also referenced trade irritants in the energy sector last week, although it’s still unclear what the president was talking about. Carr said a border adjustment tax on Canadian oil entering the U.S. would only hurt Americans, and that others in Washington understand that reality.
The minister added that the Canadian government will continue to be “disciplined about not commenting on what is said, but on what is done … We will respond to action.”
Watch the full interviews with Tom Vilsack and Jim Carr above.