Justin Trudeau
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told US President Donald Trump in a telephone call that he “refuted the baseless allegations” that persuaded Washington to slap a 20% tariff on softwood timber from Canada, according to the Prime Minister’s office. Source: The Australian
Mr Trudeau also said Canada continued to uphold its international trade obligations when it came to access to its dairy market, his office said.
His comments were aimed at rebutting allegations from the White House that Canada had effectively excluded US-produced ultrafiltered milk, which is used in cheese production, from the Canadian market.
The White House confirmed Mr Trump spoke with Mr Trudeau about timber and dairy trade.
“It was a very amicable call,” the White House said.
The summary of the phone call capped off a day in which Mr Trudeau tried to dial down the rhetoric and emphasised the positive aspects of the US-Canada ties.
Mr Trudeau said the US and Canada had a history of resolving policy differences and he expected to do the same this time.
In the summary of the phone call, Mr Trudeau said he and Mr Trump agreed on the need for a separate, bilateral deal covering timber trade, given the close integration of the two North American economies.
They also agreed to continue talks regarding Canada’s dairy market, which has come under intense criticism from Mr Trump’s administration after pressure from officials in Wisconsin and New York.
Trade irritants “are nothing new”, Mr Trudeau said on Canadian radio yesterday.
He added Canada would deal with the US “firmly and reasonably”.
His cordial tone stood in contrast to a tweet yesterday from Mr Trump, in which he said his administration was considering retaliatory measures after Canada’s decision to change market rules to effectively exclude US-produced ultra-filtered milk, used in cheese production.
“Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!” Mr Trump tweeted.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said yesterday the timber issue was a longstanding problem and the administration was following up on an already existing case.
“This was not a presidential decision to do the softwood lumber (timber),” Mr Ross said when asked whether the dispute would harm an otherwise positive relationship between Mr Trump and Mr Trudeau and marked a departure from Mr Trump’s earlier comments that US-Canada trading ties needed only “tweaking”.
“This was a decision that arose from a trade case that was under way,” Mr Ross said.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with the personal relationship between Mr Trudeau and the President.”
Still, developments in the past week mark a sharp shift in Mr Trump’s tone towards Canada.
Until now, most of his criticism over the North American Free Trade Agreement had focused on Mexico, which runs a large trade surplus with the US.
The Canadian government said earlier it “disagrees strongly” with the Commerce Department’s decision to slap a 20% tariff on softwood timber.
Canada’s Liberal government has promoted freer trade as a way to improve the country’s middle-income households, and recently completed an agreement on liberalised trade with the EU.
It was one of the countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, which were definitively shelved by Mr Trump, and has been considering a free-trade pact with China.
