Washington DC: US President Donald Trump on Monday said he was in no hurry to resume trade negotiations with Canada, accusing Ottawa of treating the United States unfairly and saying any future agreement would require Canada to be “honest” with Washington.
Trump made the remarks while speaking to reporters before boarding Marine One, when asked whether trade talks with Canada could restart before the US midterm elections.
“I don’t know. Canada behaves very badly with the United States,” Trump said. “It will work out eventually, but I’m in no rush.”
Trump did not provide a timeline for restarting formal negotiations or specify which Canadian tariffs he was referring to. He also did not outline any new conditions that Ottawa would have to meet before talks could resume.
The president has repeatedly criticized what he describes as an imbalance in U.S.-Canada trade, arguing that the United States does significantly more business with Canada than Canada does with the United States.
“You know, Canada does all their business with us, we do very little business with them,” Trump said.
He added that Washington’s primary demand was for Canada to deal with the United States fairly.
“All we ask of one thing in Canada, they have to be honest,” Trump said. “They are not honest with the United States; they’ve been ripping us off for years.”
Trump offered no specific figures or examples during the exchange to support his claims about Canada’s trade practices.
His comments indicated that resolving the trade dispute with Canada is not an immediate priority for his administration, despite his assertion that the disagreement will eventually be settled.
Trump also did not say whether U.S. and Canadian officials are continuing discussions through other channels or identify specific steps that would trigger a formal resumption of negotiations.
Asked about the possibility of talks before the midterm elections, Trump stopped short of setting a firm deadline or ruling out negotiations during the period. Instead, he repeatedly emphasized that he was in no rush to restart the process.
