Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro blasted U.S. President Donald Trump for what he called his “tough-guy” approach to Canada after a meeting Monday with some provincial premiers in Quebec City.
Speaking to reporters after this year’s Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers weekend summit, Shapiro, a Democrat, said he hopes Trump patches things up with Prime Minister Mark Carney at their meeting Tuesday in Washington.
“Instead of coming in and trying to bully the prime minister, actually sit down and work to hammer out a deal that lifts everyone up,” Shapiro said.
“The president has demeaned our neighbours in the north, suggesting that they should be the 51st state. I respect Canadian sovereignty and I hope that tomorrow, when this meeting occurs in the White House, respect will rule the day,” he said.
“It is not in America’s long-term interests, I believe, to have this fight with Canada.”
Pennsylvania governor hopes Trump has re-evaluated ‘tough guy’ approach to Canada
Shapiro said trade deals signed some 30 years ago “did not benefit Pennsylvanians” — an apparent reference to manufacturing job losses after Canada and the U.S. brought Mexico in on a free trade agreement in 1994 — and it is “important to negotiate new ones.”
But Shapiro said Trump’s actions to date are “not helpful” and risk torpedoing the U.S.’s unique relationship with Canada.
Plus, Trump’s tariffs scheme has pushed up prices for Pennsylvania farmers, manufacturers and small businesses now that they have to pay the U.S. Treasury to bring in some Canadian goods.
“With the president pushing the tariff button, he’s not only alienating one of our most important global allies. He’s driving up the cost for Pennsylvanians,” he said. “We’re seeing prices go way up.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, another Democrat, was more muted in his criticism of Trump but said “the uncertainty out of Washington, D.C., is a problem and it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“We’re in difficult times right now,” Evers said, while promising to work closer with the Canadians through forums like this binational Great Lakes leaders’ summit, which counts Ontario and Quebec among its members.
“We are friends, we are allies, we’re making great progress,” he said. “I am concerned about that progress, too.”
Carney and a number of cabinet ministers are set to meet with the U.S. president at the White House on Tuesday for what the Prime Minister’s Office describes as a face-to-face “focused on shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.”
Carney and Trump jointly agreed to reach some sort of agreement on tariffs by August — a deadline the two sides blew past with no deal.
Since then, the tariff pressure on Canada has only intensified as the Trump administration imposes its Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum and their derivatives and the auto sector.
Just last week, Trump announced new Section 232 levies on lumber and timber, kitchen cabinets, vanities and other furniture and upholstered products, arguing Canadian and other imports are somehow a “national security” threat.
The lumber tariffs are particularly problematic for Canadian producers given the Americans have also imposed countervailing and anti-dumping duties under a different tariff process.
Government sources speaking to CBC News and Radio-Canada say they are cautiously optimistic the prime minister can broker some steel tariff relief when he sits down with Trump.
After meeting with the governors, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he realizes Canada has allies in its fight against Trump’s tariffs.
“Even Republicans, they aren’t too happy with what President Trump is doing,” he said. “Make no mistake, it’s one person causing these problems.”
As for tomorrow’s meeting with Trump, Ford said he doesn’t want Carney “in there, getting bullied and telling him, ‘You’re doing this, you’re doing that.’ It is not going to work.”
“Hopefully, they can come out with a great deal, a fair trade deal for both sides of the border,” Ford said.
“I am confident the prime minister is going to go in there and do a great job. He’s a smart, smart businessperson.”
Quebec Premier François Legault, who hosted the summit, said he is setting the bar low for the Carney-Trump meeting.
But he hopes there can be some progress on tariff relief given the severe economic dislocation those levies have already caused in critical sectors like steel, aluminum and forestry.
“We can’t have any expectations because it’s always surprising. The results are always surprising with Trump,” he said in French.
