US Commerce Secretary Says Trump Views USMCA as a ‘Bad Deal’ Ahead of Review
U.S.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick criticized Canada’s approach to trade talks
and said U.S. President Donald Trump thinks the United States–Mexico–Canada
Agreement (USMCA) is a “bad trade.”
“They suck,”
Lutnick said on April 17 at a conference organized by the media outlet Semafor
when asked about comments by a former Canadian trade negotiator.
A
spokesperson for the U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement that Lutnick
was referring to the “unfair trade imbalance with Canada” where Canada “sucks
off our $30 [trillion] economy.”
Lutnick made
the remark in response to a question about comments by Steve Verheul, Canada’s
chief trade negotiator from 2017 to 2021, who said that “time is on [Canada’s] side” in trade talks
because the U.S. administration faces increasing pressure.
“That is
like the worst strategy I’ve ever heard,” he said.
Asked
whether Trump was committed to extending the trade agreement, Lutnick said
Trump considers it a “bad deal.”
“He thinks
making Mexico and Canada be treated economically like Georgia and Alabama,
without them actually being committed, is a bad trade,” Lutnick said, adding
that the deal should be “reconsidered and reimagined correctly.”
Lutnick
added that while America’s neighbours are “fundamental” to its economy in some
ways, such as Canada’s energy sector, “the concept of taking an auto plant out
of Ohio and Michigan and putting it in Mexico to break the union and to break
our people is nuts.”
He also said
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent trip to China as a strategy to offset U.S.
trade was “nuts,” given that the United States is the “consumer of the world,”
with a $30 trillion economy.
“Carney has
a problem with us. He gets on a plane and he goes to China. Does he think
China, the Chinese economy, is going to buy his stuff?” Lutnick said. “China is
an entirely export-driven economy.”
Carney’s
trip resulted in an agreement allowing up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles
to enter Canada each year at a reduced tariff rate, while Beijing was expected
to lower tariffs on Canadian food products.
Canada–U.S.
Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters a day earlier that Canada would
not be a source of delays in USMCA negotiations, and that Ottawa was “ready to
do the work to get to a deal very quickly.”
LeBlanc also
told a parliamentary committee that he’d recently had a “positive” 45-minute
conversation with Lutnick, but would not reveal details.
If the
United States, Canada, and Mexico agree to renew the USMCA at talks
in July, the trade agreement would remain in force until 2032. If the renewal
is denied or delayed, the agreement could enter a period of annual reviews. If
one or more countries withdraw from the trilateral agreement altogether, the
three countries could then make bilateral agreements.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/us-commerce-secretary-says-trump-views-usmca-as-a-bad-deal-ahead-of-review-6013713?&utm_source=MB_article_paid_c&utm_campaign=MB_article_2026-04-18-ca&utm_medium=email&est=j4m04uD4LLHEk5gY33fdJzeWtXSEUF3wXmHtZdPwQGnKDfop%2Fw03Ot9ilqZvmZXCUlHE&utm_content=more-top-news-4
Post a Comment