Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent belittled Canada as a second-rate rival when asked Monday whether the U.S. is in a “***-for-tat trade war” with its northern neighbor.
Bessent told CNBC’s Sara Eisen that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney should know better than to punch above his weight during an interview at the G20 financial summit in Asheville, North Carolina.
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“I don’t think you can be in a ***-for-tat with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are,” he quipped.
Dismissing the trade dispute as nothing but a “political shouting match,” Bessent practically scoffed at the idea that Canada could compete with the U.S.
“I mean, we’re not at war with Canada. How are we going to be at war with Canada?” he asked. “What, they’re going to take their two submarines from the Edmonton Mall and sic ’em on us?”
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Bessent then called Carney’s counter-tariffs a political ploy, saying the prime minister only won office last April after embracing an “anti-American, anti-Trump agenda.”
Accusing Carney of not acting in his nation’s best interest, Bessent added, “The Canadian people are going to see through that.”
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The secretary went on to claim Canada was “offered the best trade deal of any country on the globe” but that Carney decided “to walk away from it at the last minute.”
Last week, Canada announced it will levy $20 billion in retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. come Sept. 8, matching the 50% tax on imports President Donald Trump put in place after trade negotiations between the nations broke down.
The feud quickly plunged into petty territory when Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” last Thursday.
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