The Trump administration announced on Thursday that the 25 and 10 percent tariff on imported steel and aluminum will now come into effect as the two-month exemption ends on Friday. It was originally proposed in March on imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.
The Trump administration has introduced these stiff import duties citing that they are creating a menace for the US to which the Canadian Prime Minister reacted sharply.
He said, “The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is, quite frankly, insulting and unacceptable.”
President Donald Trump’s economic adviser said that the concerns that Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister has overreacted and the trade frictions between the two countries are more like a “family quarrel.”
Trudeau said that Canada is not only the largest trading partner for the US but also its closest military and political allies. The Canadian PM further said that with such steps the US President is disregarding the history and values that the two countries have shared together.
He said, “The idea that our soldiers who had fought and died together on the beaches of World War II, on the mountains of Afghanistan and have stood shoulder to shoulder in some of the most difficult places in the world, that are always there for each other, this is insulting to that.”
Next week, Canada is hosting the annual Group of Seven summit where Trudeau will bring up the subject with Trump. The White House has defended Trump’s decision saying that the measures taken by the US government are not unfair or irreversible.
Larry Kudlow, the US President’s top economic adviser said that the new tariff decision taken by the US has nothing to do against the friendship and longstanding alliance that the country has with Canada.
