Trump's commerce secretary Howard Lutnick unloads on Canada: 'They suck'

OTTAWA — Asked Friday for his thoughts on Canada’s negotiating strategy with the United States, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick didn’t mince words : “Good for them. That’s like the worst strategy I have ever heard. They suck.”

Lutnick appeared to be responding to comments by Steve Verheul , who was Canada’s chief trade negotiator for the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement during the first Trump administration, who said “in many ways, time is on our side because the pressures on the U.S. are only going to increase over time.”

Lutnick didn’t agree.

“We are a $30 trillion economy. We are the consumer of the world. Carney has a problem with us. He gets on a plane and he goes to China. Does he think the Chinese economy is going to buy his stuff?” said Lutnick, at the Semafor World Economy summit. “China is an entirely export-driven economy. So what did he do? He came back and said, ‘we’ll take their electric cars.’ Is this nuts?”

White House officials later told the New York Times that the commerce secretary was “being misquoted.”

Lutnick also took a shot at former minister Chrystia Freeland, who was also involved in talks with the U.S. on CUSMA during the first Trump administration.

“Who? Chrystia Freeland, who’s like the worst?” said Lutnick, when asked about Verheul’s comments.

CUSMA is up for review this summer, with the deadline for the beginning of talks set for July 1.

In mid-March, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox Business that Canada was behind Mexico on trade discussions. Greer has also said it’s unlikely the U.S. administration will resolve all its trade issues with Canada and Mexico by the July 1 deadline.

This week, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said there is no “drop dead date” for the review and that Canada “certainly won’t be the source of any delays.”

National Post, with files from Jordan Gowling.

• Canada should expect 'hostility' with U.S. trade talks less than three months away, trade analysts say
• Trump is running out of tariff cards to play ahead of CUSMA review

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