Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly will press Canada’s case against damaging tariffs with Donald Trump’s new secretary of state next week in Washington.
Trump is threatening to impose 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada starting on Feb. 1 though Joly says things are still in transition while Trump hasn’t yet confirmed a commerce secretary.
Joly spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio for half an hour by phone Wednesday and will meet him in person next week.
She says she stressed to Rubio that tariffs will hurt America’s economy and its relationships with other countries and wants to convince the Trump administration that Canada can help Washington stand against China.
Joly says Rubio seemed open to new ideas during the discussion.
Joly says she will also meet with “other key Republican senators” while in Washington and Canada will participate in Trump’s planned review of trading practices.
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Also on Thursday Trump repeated previous calls for NATO military allies like Canada to spend 5 percent of their GDP on defence—a target that no NATO country currently meets.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded by citing Ottawa’s planned increases to military spending and said Canada is a partner to the U.S. in an unstable world.
