Trump says Canada cannot survive without US

US President Donald Trump has escalated his trade confrontation with Canada declaring it the most ldquodifficult and unreasonablerdquo trading partner and asserting that the country could not survive economically without access to the American marketThe White House on Tuesday accused Canada of having ldquobeen ripping off the United States for decadesrdquo and said Trump would no longer allow it to benefit from preferential access to the worldrsquos largest economy ldquoCanada is easily the most difficult and unreasonable They feel entitled but they are not a State and will be entitled no longerrdquo Trump said in a statement released by the White HouseThe strongly worded statement came after Canada announced additional retaliatory tariffs on American products It marked a sharp deterioration in relations between two countries that share one of the worldrsquos largest bilateral trading relationshipsThe White House said the United States had offered Canada deep tariff reductions covering steel aluminium automobiles and lumber It accused Ottawa of responding with ldquounreasonable demands walkbacks and flatout rejectionrdquoIt also claimed that Canada and China were the only countries that had chosen retaliation over negotiation in their trade disputes with Washington According to the White House Canada imposed 25 per cent tariffs and companyspecific quotas on American vehicles contributing to a 22 per cent decline in US automobile exports to the Canadian market over the past yearIt also accused Canadian provinces and territories of restricting American wine beer and spirits US alcohol exports to Canada had fallen by 81 per cent in one year it said Dairy emerged as another major source of friction The White House said Canada used restrictive tariffrate quotas and imposed overquota tariffs approaching 300 per cent on certain US dairy productsIt described the rates as so high that they effectively blocked American products from entering the Canadian market The administration also said the United States had recorded an average annual goods trade deficit of about 50 billion with Canada over the past decadeldquoWithout the United States Canada could not surviverdquo the White House said noting that Canada sends roughly threequarters of its goods exports to the American market It said the US economy was approximately 13 times larger than Canadarsquos and had more than eight times its population ldquoThe United States has the clear leveragerdquo the statement saidCanada rejected Washingtonrsquos position and announced that it would match the new American tariffs ldquodollarfordollar rate for raterdquo The Canadian government said Washington had proposed terms that were not in Canadarsquos national interest and that it suspended negotiations rather than accept an agreement that could harm its workers businesses and strategic industriesEffective September 8 Canada will impose tariffs of 15 25 and 50 per cent on American goods covering 276 billion in imports The targeted sectors include steel dairy appliances agricultural equipment pulp and paper electronics furniture and clothingldquoWhen the United States asked too much and offered too little we chose to stand up for Canadiansrdquo Canadian Finance Minister FranccediloisPhilippe Champagne said Ottawa also announced a 75 billion assistance package for workers and businesses affected by the trade dispute The measures include liquidity support workerretention programmes training assistance and investments to help companies diversifyThe United States Canada and Mexico have traded under the USMexicoCanada Agreement since July 2020 The pact replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement and established updated rules governing automobiles agriculture labour intellectual property and digital commerceCanada is one of the United Statesrsquo largest trading partners with deeply integrated automobile energy agriculture and manufacturing supply chains Disruptions caused by tariffs can affect producers and consumers on both sides of the border because many products and components cross the frontier several times before reaching the marketThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever