Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday dismissed Canada’s decision to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, suggesting that the United States’ northern neighbor lacked the economic might to fight a trade war.
“I don’t think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are,” Mr. Bessent said in an interview on CNBC, referring to the size of the countries’ economies.
The comments came as Mr. Bessent welcomed finance ministers from around the world to the mountains of Asheville, N.C., for two days of meetings with counterparts from the Group of 20 nations, all large advanced or emerging economies. Mr. Bessent met with economic officials from Russia and China at the summit, but he focused his harshest criticism on the Canada.
“I think this is very unfortunate that Prime Minister Carney has turned this into a political shouting match,” Mr. Bessent said of the Canadian leader’s vocal rejection of U.S. trade tactics.
The Treasury secretary accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of backing away from the trade agreement with the United States for political purposes, noting that he had come to power on an anti-Trump agenda. Mr. Bessent added that while the United States was not at war with Canada, its second-largest trading partner, that country would not stand a chance if the tension became a fight.
“How are we going to be at war with Canada?” Mr. Bessent said. “They’re going to take their two submarines from the Edmonton Mall and sic them on us?” He was alluding to a former attraction at the vast West Edmonton shopping emporium.
Canada announced retaliatory tariffs as high as 50 percent on hundreds of American products last week, days after the collapse of trade talks triggered punishing tariffs from the Trump administration. “You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Mr. Carney told reporters on Aug. 22, the day after he ordered his negotiators to abandon the talks.
The new Canadian levies cover about $20 billion per year of imports from the United States, the same value as the Canadian exports affected by the tariffs.
John Fragos, a spokesman for Canada’s finance ministry, said that it was unfortunate that a trade agreement with the United States had not materialized and that Canada would not accept a bad deal. He defended the importance of Canada to the global economy.
“Be it critical minerals, conventional and clean energy, or the potash that helps feed the world, Canada increasingly has what the world wants and needs,” Mr. Fragos said.
The post Bessent Claims Canada Is Too Small to Fight a Trade War appeared first on New York Times.
