Canadian Envoy Warns of “Self-Inflicted” Damage from U.S. Protectionist Trade Policies
Mark Wiseman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., is warning that President Donald Trump’s trade war is hurting the American auto industry by choking off its most lucrative export market – its neighbour to the north.
Speaking in Washington on Monday, Mr. Wiseman, who took over the diplomatic post in February, underlined how Mr. Trump’s protectionist agenda is causing economic blowback in the U.S.
The President’s Section 232 tariffs, which imposed 25-per-cent levies on autos and auto parts imported into the U.S. – and which triggered retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa – are not only “costing jobs” and “creating hardship” in Canada, he said.
“It is also closing off the most important foreign market for the sale of U.S. automobiles,” Mr. Wiseman told a conference of the Canada-United States Law Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s campus in Washington. “It’s important to remember what is the impact on the United States of America of these tariffs.”
The U.S. would be better off, he said, by co-operating with other countries. “One of the phrases I’ve started to use now is ‘America First doesn’t mean America alone,’ and I think the auto sector is a great example of that.”
Official talks to end the trade war have been frozen since last October and there has been little sign of movement ahead of a July 1 date to start a joint review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which governs continental trade. Mr. Wiseman was mum on his discussions with U.S. officials since taking office.
But he said that he and Prime Minister Mark Carney, a long-time friend, have been working frenetically behind the scenes.
“There is a lot to get done. We all have to act with urgency. Again, I think the U.S. administration is operating the same way and it’s now more and more what I’m used to in the business context. So, a lot happens by text. It happens fast,” said the ambassador, a career financier who previously worked for public pension funds and on Wall Street.
Mr. Carney often texts him at 5 a.m., Mr. Wiseman said. “If I reply at, like, 5:15 a.m., he’s like, ‘What took you so long?’”
Ottawa is serious about alleviating one major bilateral point of friction by cranking up defence spending, the ambassador said. “We’re arguably the most important security relationship that the United States has. And it’s not been perfect. Canada has under-spent. We know that, we admit to it.”
Mr. Wiseman pointed out that Canada reached NATO’s target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence at the end of this past fiscal year – 14 years after making the commitment, but six years earlier than former prime minister Justin Trudeau had planned on hitting the benchmark.
“We’re on our way to five per cent,” Mr. Wiseman said.
The ambassador also cracked frequent jokes during the talk. He referred to the Prime Minister as “Mark One,” himself as “Mark Two,” and Mark Glauser, Canada’s deputy ambassador in Washington, as “Mark Three.”
Describing Mr. Carney’s play as a collegiate hockey goalie, Mr. Wiseman said the position “put him in good stead to be a politician because he’s willing to get hit a lot.”
After lauding former U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower for building the country’s interstate highway system, he quipped: “If only he’d thought of high-speed rail.”
Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, also spoke at the conference, his first public appearance since abruptly pulling out of an Ottawa speaking engagement on Friday. Organizers of that event said he was summoned to the White House for urgent meetings.
Mr. Hoekstra, joined the Monday event via video link and said he was in Ottawa. He did not address the reasons for cancelling his Friday talk at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference, which was hosted by the conservative advocacy group founded by Preston Manning.
He struck a diplomatic tone at odds with his bombastic reputation.
“From the Trump team perspective, we see a great potential for this good relationship to continue to grow and be even better,” he said of U.S.-Canada relations. “Ottawa can be a great partner, enabling us to achieve our objectives and achieve the objectives of the Carney government.”
In recent months, Mr. Hoekstra has said “We don’t need Canada,” that he didn’t understand why Canadians were “so mad” about Mr. Trump openly talking about annexing them, and reportedly shouted and swore at an Ontario government official over a provincial anti-tariff ad that aired in the U.S.
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
