The U.S. Just Hit A Breaking Point With Canada
Episode Stats
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Summary
Learn English with Honourable Congressman Peter Roskam joins me to talk about the latest trade tensions between Canada and the United States. We discuss the impact of the Canadian Prime Minister's recent comments on USMCA negotiations, the impact on the Canadian economy, and the need for Canada to be more like a grown-up.
Transcript
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The days of our military sending 70 cents of every dollar to the United States are over.
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Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses.
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from the united states uh understanding their position uh understand where uh it's in canada's
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interest uh when are in our joint interests uh to be stronger together we're dealing with a child
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that's pretty much what the americans are saying about mark carney and it looks like they just
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ran out of patience for canada and the liberal government altogether and honestly who can blame
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them american officials are calling out the prime minister of canada for sabotaging his own economy
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and not acting like an adult when it comes to negotiating with the United States,
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which over 60% of Canada's industries depend on, by the way,
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U.S. officials are not sugarcoating it anymore.
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And it looks like all we have in the horizon is economic pain, thanks to the liberals.
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I think having some discipline on reminding folks how valuable it is,
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What I'll say is that the countries that are led by serious leaders, and I'll say President
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When we came in and we were talking, Ambassador Greer was just there, we're talking to Mexico
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about this, and the president has spoken directly about this.
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Look, we know the United States is our most important economic partner, that it is the
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policy of President Scheinbaum that the United States and Mexico will have a positive economic
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relationship. And that we know that we'll have some friction and we'll have to figure it out,
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but we're going to figure it out, right? This is the bottom line. There are other economies
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who decided to make it personal. And, you know, I think Carney has made it personal. I think it's
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political malpractice for the prime minister of a Canadian, you know, of Canada to pit politically
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himself against any president. I don't care what the president is, who the president is, what party
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they represent its political malpractice. Canada is dependent upon the U.S. economy. That's just
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a fact. That's not hubris. That's not something that Canada needs to be concerned about. It's
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not something Canada can change. The fundamental fact is geography wins out. Canada is located
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where it's located. They can't move shop. They can have a weak economy that is underperforming
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and not doing well, and Carney can feel superior, or they can have an economy that participates
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with, as a partner of the US economy, and Carney can do what a grown-up should do, which
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is figure out, figure it out, and come like President Scheinbaum and decide that the United
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States and Canada will have a positive economic relationship, and it's my job as a person
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who's supposed to protect Canadian jobs, Canadian citizens, and the Canadian economy to not
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let my ego and my feelings dictate what's best for my own economy.
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That's a very powerful statement. Do you think that this will have implications for USMCA,
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for the negotiations between the US, Mexico, and Canada?
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Yeah, of course it does. You can't, right? Not. Like, look, was Ambassador Greer in Canada?
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Did he meet with Carney? No. Was he in Mexico on Monday? Did he meet with President Scheinbaum? Yes.
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uh we you know we have issues with mexico we're still working through but but mexico intends on
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coming to an agreement with us we intend on coming to agreement with them the grown-ups are in the
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room talking because there's a there's a grown-up in in the presidency in leadership there and i
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would argue there's not a grown-up in canada in charge there you don't go out of your way to
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antagonize the leader of the country that you are absolutely existentially tied to it's just
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political malpractice now for five minutes I would just want to say thank
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you so much Ambassador Greer for for being here and being so responsive to
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me and my staff and as you know the top trade issue in my district in northern
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New York New York 24 is the relationship between the US and Canada from tourism
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to agricultural markets commodities to wine and manufactured goods it's a huge
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issue and Canada is a top market for my district however Canada has long
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discriminated against certain industries in my district, and that is what I want to focus
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I've got a couple quick things, but let's start with dairy, and we've talked about this
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As you recall, probably my district is the fifth largest dairy-producing district in
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For years, Canada has rigged their system to prevent U.S. dairy producers from fair
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This year's National Trade Estimate Report, as every year's report details, Canada's
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market manipulation and unfair treatment of U.S. producers is still evident. The U.S. has fought
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for years to gain access to the Canadian dairy market, and yet Canada continues to violate USMCA
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and the spirit of its dairy commitments. Have you and your team raised these issues with our
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Canadian counterparts thus far, and have they been constructive in helping all of us resolve this
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issue with our friend to the north? We have raised it repeatedly and frequently over the past year.
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Our Canadian counterparts have indicated as a general matter,
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they're happy to talk to us about adjustments to USMCA and different things like that,
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but they have made no commitments on this front at this time.
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So let's shift to wine, another issue detailed.
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Every Canadian province, with the exception of Alberta and Saskatchewan,
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has ceased distribution of U.S. wine and liquor products, including Ontario to the north.
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This is distorting the market, causing immense harm to our wine producers.
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in the district and have you and your team raised this issue as well with our Canadian counterparts
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and have they been trying to help us? Have they been constructive in this issue much like with
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the dairy issue? Well it's at the provincial level right so we hear from the federal government of
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Canada well it's the provinces and we do have two provinces who don't have this. That being said I
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think we're kind of at the end of our rope and just asking for them to do this and think about
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this way there are two countries that have retaliated economically against the United States
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in the past year, the People's Republic of China and Canada.
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So that's kind of the company that they're running in.
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So my sense is there may have to be an enforcement action
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to deal with this issue on wine and spirits in Canada.
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The question is, well, you can ask me the question in English, if you wish.
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Should Canada make any more concessions to get to the table with the U.S.?
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And how do you balance them getting you a list?