The United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has rebuked Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent visit to China to strengthen trade relations, calling it “political noise.”
Lutnick pointed out that Carney’s policies could impact the upcoming negotiations for the revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement later this year.
“Do you think China will open up its economy to accept exports from Canada? This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday at Davos, Switzerland.
“We should see it as political noise coming from the Prime Minister,” the Commerce Secretary said. “I don’t think it’s true because he overlooks the size of the Canadian economy and the reality of doing business with a $30 trillion economy like the United States. Their current situation is unlikely to change at all.”
Carney reached an agreement last week with the Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping to open doors for Chinese investments in electric vehicles and automobiles from Canada, in exchange for Beijing lowering tariffs on Canadian canola seeds. He also stated that China is “more predictable” than the United States.
Lutnick stated on Thursday that the market access agreement the United States has with Canada is the “second best in the world,” only behind Mexico. He implied that Canada’s leaning towards China could pose a hurdle in the negotiations for the revision of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“If Canada chooses to import electric vehicles from China and takes other measures to enhance trade with Beijing, do you think the U.S. President will say during the USMCA negotiations that they should maintain the second-best agreement in the world?” he questioned.
He also mentioned that the negotiations for the revision of the USMCA are likely to take place in “late summer or midsummer” of this year.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated on Thursday that Mexico will continue to work towards maintaining the USMCA trade agreement. She also mentioned during a press conference that she will attempt to engage in dialogue with Carney. The Mexican Minister of Economy is set to travel to Washington next week to participate in trade talks.