Donald Trump ‘needed to break some guy in Ontario who said he was going to tax American energy 25 per cent,’ Howard Lutnick said
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc are set to meet Thursday in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who invited Ford to put an end to an escalation of the trade war between Canada and the United States.
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Ford said he hoped it would be a cordial meeting, but it will come after both Lutnick and U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed the premier and Canada in statements made to the press.
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The U.S. can call the end result a win if they want, Ford said. “Whatever,” he said. “They’re playing politics. (It’s neither) here nor there.”
Trump brushed off Ford’s electricity surcharge as a “little threat” on Wednesday. “I said, ’This will be won in one hour,’ and (we) announced what we were going to do and they withdrew their little threat,” Trump said.
Lutnick told CBS on Tuesday that Trump’s 50 per cent tariff threat was a tactic to “break some guy in Ontario.”
Here are five things we learned about how Trump and his team view Ford and Canada based on Lutnick’s CBS interview with Nancy Cordes.
Lutnick: Well, the President woke up this morning and he saw it and he just jumped right on it. He sent out a couple of tweets this morning and Truths that made it crystal clear that you can’t have a Canadian premier sort of attacking, effectively tacking on a 25 per cent tax on Americans energy, a couple of states. And he made it crystal clear. This is coming off today. He called me first thing this morning and said, “Howard, this had better come off,” and I spoke to Doug Ford, the premier, and I’m happy to tell you it is off.
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Lutnick: He needed to break some guy in Ontario who said he was going to tax American energy 25 per cent. The President of the United States in the White House says, “Oh, no, you won’t,” and breaks him. Breaks him in what? By a tweet and a Truth and you think that’s chaotic. You know what I think that is? I think that is the thank God we have a president who’s taking care of us. If you were in one of those states and you thought your energy prices were going to go up 25 per cent and you said, “Where’s the President?” And all of a sudden he came down like thunder to make that end, you’d say, “Cool. I’m glad that’s the kind of White House,” and that’s what we’ve got.
Lutnick: Think about it. The biggest trading partner in the whole world that is vital to Canada’s existence says, “I’m unhappy,” and they respond negatively, you know why? Because for 20 years, 30 years, they’ve gotten away with it. It’s like Ukraine. They came in. You imagine coming into this country, sitting in the Oval Office, having received $300 billion in aid from U.S. and military and NATO and all the rest, and the first words out of your mouth aren’t thank you. Just say thank you. God knows, just say thank you. When the biggest client, the biggest trading partner, the most important counter-party you have, who really, really matters to you, the first thing you do is showing immeasurable respect. Say, “Thank you. I want to work it out with you. I want you to be happy.”
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Lutnick: Number one, the Ontario Premier threatened energy against America. You can’t threaten-
Cordes: But he was responding to what you did.
Lutnick: No, no. He wasn’t, and he knows he wasn’t, and he knows he made a mistake and he withdrew it. The president gave USMCA, the agreement with USMCA. He said, “I’ll let that remain tariff-free, but anybody who’s not in USMCA is going to pay a tariff until fentanyl deaths end in America.” Try not to forget, March is about fentanyl deaths in America. We’ve got to end it. And then let’s talk about cars just for a minute. Once upon a time, cars were made in Detroit and in Ohio, Michigan and Ohio, and NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Another way to say NAFTA is Destroy Michigan and Ohio Agreement. What they did is they took these car companies and they moved them to Mexico and Canada.
Lutnick: Once upon a time, America — think about this. This is a shocker. America made American cars in America and then NAFTA created, “Oh, it’s cheaper labor to screw all the American workers and move it to Mexico where it’s cheap labor, and why don’t we move to Canada and we can get out of our unions? So let’s break the unions and let’s move to Mexico. Rah, rah, car company. Screw American worker.” How about Donald Trump, a Republican, says, “I’ve had enough.” I think under Donald Trump union labour is going to double because those factories are going to come back and those workers are going to get great jobs and we are going to have a different America, one that produces and manufactures. “And if I need to use tariffs,” this is the President talking, “If I need to use tariffs to bring that manufacturing home, we’re going to do it.”
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With additional reporting from The Canadian Press
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