Canada’s ambassador to the United States hinted that the country could avoid tariffs of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, continuing to address illegal migration and fentanyl traffic.
In an interview on Wednesday with CBC’s Power and politics The guest presenter JP Tasker, Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, said the president’s advisors are “pleased” with the progress of Canada.
He added that “all we are talking about” in Washington suggests the deadline of Trump’s March 4 to impose 25 percent tariffs In almost all imports from Canada It is linked to the country’s efforts to combat the scourge of the fentanyl and protect the border.
Canada has taken a series of measures in response to the president’s concerns, including the falsification of a plan of $ 1.3 billion to ensure the border with Canada-United States and appoint former Senior Mountie Kevin Brosseau as Fentanyl Czar.
Trump is also threatening to raise additional tariffs of 25 percent over all Steel and aluminum imports – Even from Canada, its largest importer of metals, as of March 12.
“There is a recognition that Canada has made important steps and we are doing a good job,” said Hillman. “Continue informing about these results is something we are going to do in the next few days and weeks.”
He added that Canada’s illegal migration to the United States has decreased by 90 percent in recent months.
Tariffs as a negotiation tool
Hillman emphasized that Trump hung tariffs and repeated that Canada should become the state 51 is part of its strategy to obtain profits in issues not related to translation, such as the protection of national steel and aluminum industries, which is interested in supporting.
Part of his work, said Hillman, is to demonstrate that exercising such threats against Canada has “the opposite effect” of what the president is trying to achieve.
“It is a very strategic type that uses this type of rhetoric to prepare the stage for negotiations,” he said. “Creating concern in Canada is exactly its goal.”
Hillman suggests avoiding climbing to resist the president’s tactics, an approach that strongly contrasts to former vice -first minister Chrystia Freeland.
With the March rate deadline threatened by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, just a few weeks away, Power & Politics sits with the Canadian ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman. He was asked if Canada has done enough on the border to stop the Fentanyl flow and change the president’s mind.
At the end of January, the liberal leadership contender requested that the federal government “immediately publish a detailed, Dolk reprisal list“Including $ 200 billion in American products that could be subject to Canadian commercial action if Trump followed the threats.
Although Hillman did not comment directly at Freeland’s request, he warned against “growing rhetoric” with the US administration, saying that doubt that this approach would benefit Canadians in the short and medium term.
Instead, he suggests that Canada should demonstrate strength and resolution, as well as national pride because the president respects him.
“We need to be pragmatic and need to be able to find a path that helps the president achieve the objectives that he is trying to achieve in a way that also benefits Canada,” he said.
