{"id":41233,"date":"2026-05-12T00:23:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/41233\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T00:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:23:06","slug":"trumps-trade-war-hurts-the-u-s-too-canadian-ambassador-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/41233\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s trade war hurts the U.S. too, Canadian ambassador says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Ambassador to the United States Mark Wiseman on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 23. Mr. Wiseman says the U.S. would be better off by co-operating with other countries.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Mark Wiseman, Canada\u2019s ambassador to the U.S., is warning that President Donald Trump\u2019s trade war is hurting the American auto industry<\/a> by choking off its most lucrative export market \u2013 its neighbour to the north.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Washington on Monday, Mr. Wiseman, who took over the diplomatic post<\/a> in February, underlined how Mr. Trump\u2019s protectionist agenda is causing economic blowback in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s Section 232 tariffs, which imposed 25-per-cent levies on autos and auto parts imported into the U.S. \u2013 and which triggered retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa \u2013 are not only \u201ccosting jobs\u201d and \u201ccreating hardship\u201d in Canada, he said.<\/p>\n

Canada must seek non-U.S. trade partners to offset \u2018vulnerabilities,\u2019 Carney tells global summit<\/a><\/p>\n

Opinion: Maybe Canada should levy a tumbleweed tax on the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also closing off the most important foreign market for the sale of U.S. automobiles,\u201d Mr. Wiseman told a conference of the Canada-United States Law Institute at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s campus in Washington. \u201cIt\u2019s important to remember what is the impact on the United States of America of these tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. would be better off, he said, by co-operating with other countries. \u201cOne of the phrases I\u2019ve started to use now is \u2018America First doesn\u2019t mean America alone,\u2019 and I think the auto sector is a great example of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But he said that he and Prime Minister Mark Carney, a long-time friend, have been working frenetically behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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\u2019s now more and more what I\u2019m used to in the business context. So, a lot happens by text. It happens fast,\u201d said the ambassador, a career financier who previously worked for public pension funds and on Wall Street.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney often texts him at 5 a.m., Mr. Wiseman said. \u201cIf I reply at, like, 5:15 a.m., he\u2019s like, \u2018What took you so long?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa offers $1.5-billion in tariff relief after U.S. turns up pressure<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa is serious about alleviating one major bilateral point of friction by cranking up defence spending, the ambassador said. \u201cWe\u2019re arguably the most important security relationship that the United States has. And it\u2019s not been perfect. Canada has under-spent. We know that, we admit to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Wiseman pointed out that Canada reached NATO\u2019s target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence<\/a> at the end of this past fiscal year \u2013 14 years after making the commitment, but six years earlier than former prime minister Justin Trudeau had planned on hitting the benchmark. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on our way to five per cent,\u201d Mr. Wiseman said.<\/p>\n

The ambassador also cracked frequent jokes during the talk. He referred to the Prime Minister as \u201cMark One,\u201d himself as \u201cMark Two,\u201d and Mark Glauser, Canada\u2019s deputy ambassador in Washington, as \u201cMark Three.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing Mr. Carney\u2019s play as a collegiate hockey goalie, Mr. Wiseman said the position \u201cput him in good stead to be a politician because he\u2019s willing to get hit a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

After lauding former U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower for building the country\u2019s interstate highway system, he quipped: \u201cIf only he\u2019d thought of high-speed rail.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> on Friday. Organizers of that event said he was summoned to the White House for urgent meetings.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Donald Trump is not an aberration. He is America<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He struck a diplomatic tone at odds with his bombastic reputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the Trump team perspective, we see a great potential for this good relationship to continue to grow and be even better,\u201d he said of U.S.-Canada relations. \u201cOttawa can be a great partner, enabling us to achieve our objectives and achieve the objectives of the Carney government.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent months, Mr. Hoekstra has said \u201cWe don\u2019t need Canada,\u201d that he didn\u2019t understand why Canadians were \u201cso mad\u201d 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada’s Ambassador to the United States Mark Wiseman on Parliament Hill in Ottawa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-41233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-travel","51":"tag-trudeau","52":"tag-us-news","53":"tag-world-news","54":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}