U.S. Ambassador hopeful Canada and U.S. will reach new trade deal
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra joins Jeff Keele to talk about cross-border relations, tariffs, and his visit to Winnipeg.
The United States of America's Ambassador to Canada is hopeful the two countries will have a new trade deal in the coming days.
'You've got at least 48 hours and maybe up to 72 hours,' U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said Tuesday in an interview on CTV Morning Live Winnipeg. 'But a lot of things happen at the close of a negotiation. Hopefully there's a good level of cooperation between the participants, and they get there.'
The U.S. and Canada are currently negotiating a trade deal. If one is not reached by Aug. 1, President Donald Trump has vowed 35 per cent tariffs on Canadian products will kick in.
Hoekstra said if a deal is reached, tariffs of some sort should be expected, noting the goal for the United States is to move more manufacturing jobs to the United States.
'The President came into office and had a number of challenges that he wanted to fix,' he said. 'He told us what they were. He wanted to fix our economic crisis. He wanted to fix our border crisis. He wanted the West to be strong militarily, and slowly, he's knocking each of those out and revitalizing the American economy. Passed a tax bill that we think will do that. That's good for us, and I think what's good for the U.S. is good for Canada. Just like if Canada's prospering, there are spillover effects into the United States when we're both doing well.'
Hoekstra was in Winnipeg Tuesday to speak with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, sharing his belief that Canada and the U.S. will end up with a strong partnership when a deal is reached.
'We do better when we do those kinds of things together; there are more opportunities for us to collaborate and grow this relationship, and it makes us stronger because of what's going to happen on a global basis,' he said.
'Americans still love Canada'
Hoekstra was also asked about recent comments made at a news conference in Washington state last week. During the conference, he spoke about the decisions made by some Canadians to not travel to the United States while Trump is on office, and some provinces choosing to remove American alcohol from store shelves.
'Canadians staying home—that's their business, you know. I don't like it, but if that's what they want to do, it's fine. They want to ban American alcohol. That's fine,' he said on July 21.
'There are reasons why the president and some of his team referred to Canada as being mean and nasty to deal with, OK, because of some of those steps.'
Speaking Wednesday, Hoekstra said he understood the feelings Canadians have, but he didn't notice the same feelings in the United States.
'Americans still love Canada. We're coming here. We're spending American dollars in Canada because we view Canada as a friendly country,' he said.
'We both have warts. Okay, you don't like the 51st state. Guess what? We didn't like it that you didn't pay for NATO for years. But that didn't stop us from coming to Canada or evaluating Canadian products based on their merit and their value.'
-With files from CTV's Jeff Keele and The Canadian Press
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