President Donald Trump’s confrontation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has got to a point where bilateral relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in decades, leaving Ottawa with few options for averting a trade war with its much bigger neighbor.
Reuters wrote that Trump blew apart the G7 summit in Canada over the weekend, blasting Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak” and raising the prospect of tariffs against auto imports, a move that would hurt the Canadian economy. President Trump’s unexpected and extraordinary attack confused Canadian officials, who sponsored an 18-month campaign meant to find allies among U.S. policymakers and business leaders who will defend Canada’s interests.
People close to the government said they were disappointed the outreach had not been as productive as they hoped, especially after his dispute weighed on the Canadian dollar on Monday.
Ottawa vowed to retaliate against Washington’s tariffs on metals imports from Canada. Canada’s chances of winning a trade war against a country with a significantly stronger economy, which takes the majority of its exports, are almost nonexistent.
“There is a limit to what we can achieve in Canada. The only people capable of persuading Trump to stop this are in the United States, but they have not hit anything like top gear,” said one person close to the matter.
Canadian officials say that they plan to press harder with their U.S. lobbying campaign, focused on potentially sympathetic lawmakers outside the White House, while relying on support from allied nations and hoping Trump does not carry out all his threats.
Meanwhile, officials from both countries have stressed the two countries’ extensive trading relationship and pointed out that Canada is the top export destination for 35 U.S. states and that 9 million jobs in the United States depend on trade with its northern neighbor.
White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, who said there was “a special place in hell” for Trudeau, condemned Canadian outreach campaign, adding that the Canadians should “spend more time at the bargaining table and less time lobbying Capitol Hill and our press and state governments.”
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