Canada might seem an unlikely target for a U.S. trade war, according to an Associated Press report.
No country on Earth buys as much from the United States as its northern neighbor. For American farmers, Canada is the second-largest export market, after Mexico.
A North American trade pact — negotiated by President Donald Trump during his first term — means that most American products enter Canada duty-free. Rankings of the world’s most open economies usually put Canada near the top.
But when Trump looks at Canada, he says he sees a predator out to cheat the United States and strangle its industries.
America has been “ripped off for 50 years by Canada,” the president declared Saturday when asked if he was considering pulling out of the three-way agreement he signed with the leaders of Canada and Mexico in late 2018.
Relations between the U.S. and Canada have deteriorated since their latest trade talks collapsed Aug. 21. Trump has goaded Canada’s leaders with personal attacks and portrayed the longtime U.S. ally as weak. After alienating the Canadian public last year by repeatedly floating the idea of making Canada the 51st state, he signed an executive order last month directing the federal government to change Lake Ontario’s name to “Lake America.”
