US Commerce Secretary Lutnick criticises Canada’s trade strategy of wait and watch - 'They suck'

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made a blunt criticism of Canada's trading strategy during Semafor’s World Economy Summit on Friday, April 17. He was responding to a Financial Post report which featured former trade negotiator Steve Verheul, who argued that Canada should adopt a "wait-and-see" approach to USMCA negotiations. Lutnick blasted Canada, “they suck”, and it was the “worst strategy”.

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

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Lutnick had been critical of the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; the relationship between the US and Canada appears to have taken a downturn since Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He declared that the "rules-based international order" is dead and described the current era as a "rupture, not a transition".

Lutnick thinks that the wait-and-watch approach is fundamentally flawed since Canada is greatly dependent on the US economy. A clarification from the US Department of Commerce claims that Lutnick was “misquoted”. “Secretary Lutnick, describing our unfair trade imbalance with Canada, explained how Canada sucks off of our $30T economy,” said a spokesperson of the department to several outlets, as reported by The Hill.

This confrontation comes just before the US, Mexico and Canada must agree to renew the terms of a trade agreement Trump renegotiated in his first US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc remains hopeful of reaching a quick agreement.

"I believe that we have a lot of things that the American economy needs. That's why I remain optimistic that we will get there," said LeBlanc. Trump thinks USMCA is a “bad deal” and it needs to be “reimagined”. A top US trade negotiator told Politico in December that US President Donald Trump has reportedly threatened to pull out of the deal if it does not match his demands.