Rick Larsen criticizes President Donald Trump for new Canadian tariffs
U.S. Representative Rick Larsen criticized President Donald Trump over new 50 percent tariffs implemented against Canada after trade negotiations broke down on Friday night.
"These new tariffs aren't leverage over Canada. They're yet another way that the Trump administration is raising your prices and sabotaging the American economy," Larsen said in a statement.
The backstory:
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended trade negotiations with the United States late on Friday, pledging to impose retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. President Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on approximately $50 billion in Canadian goods that went into effect at midnight on Saturday.
"Across over a hundred meetings and conversations with people I represent in Northwest Washington, I heard how a stable economic relationship with Canada and Mexico is critical to keeping local businesses afloat, lowering prices and creating good-paying jobs," Larsen said in his statement. The U.S. must renegotiate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) and end these pointless, reckless tariffs.
"It's not complicated: trade good, tariffs bad. I will keep fighting to end these tariffs, bring down costs and make the U.S.-Canada relationship boring again."
Related: Trump's 50% tariffs implemented on Canadian goods after trade negotiations suspended
The Trump administration elected not to extend the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) in July, choosing to pursue independent trade agreements with their closest neighbors. Many of the goods protected from import taxes under the USMCA are now going to be tariffed.
At midnight, new 50% tariffs on many Canadian goods went into effect after trade talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed late last night. The 50% tariffs include goods that had previously been protected from import taxes by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA).
Dig deeper:
Carney said in a statement that last-minute changes to the terms of the proposal were deemed "unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal."
"As a result, this evening, I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and have directed Canada's negotiators to return to Ottawa," he said in a statement. "They have worked hard, in good faith, to defend the interests of Canadians throughout these negotiations up until the very last minute.
The other side:
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) disputed Carney's account of the breakdown, saying Canada backed away from terms it had agreed to earlier in the week.
"Tonight, Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week," USTR Jamieson Greer said in a statement. "Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days."
The Source: Information in this story came from Representative Rick Larsen and FOX Business reporting.
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