Canadian ambassador to U.S. hopes for ‘off-ramp’ to trade war after Trump tariffs

John Yang:

Good evening. I'm John Yang. President Trump said today that Americans may feel some pain as a result of the North American trade war that seems to be emerging after he imposed sweeping tariffs on Mexico and Canada. But Mr. Trump added it would be worth the price.

Retaliatory tariffs were quickly announced by Mexico, Canada and China, which the president also targeted with import duties. Last night, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a stern warning for Americans.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, Canada:

This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians, but beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people.

John Yang:

Today, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Mr. Trump to reverse course before the tariffs take effect at 12:01 Tuesday morning.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader:

You campaigned on lowering prices. You campaigned on this wallet, but your tariffs will have more money come out of this wallet for so many goods and services.

John Yang:

The public reaction in Canada appears to be especially strong. Kirsten Hillman is the Canadian ambassador to the United States. Madam Ambassador, do you see a way now, a path to averting this before Tuesday morning?

Kirsten Hillman, Canada's Ambassador to the US: Well, you know, I have to hope that there's always a path. The president put these tariffs in place in relation to concerns that he had at the border or has at the border. We've been working on that with him and his team since December. I think we've made incredible progress. We've had discussions last week right up until Friday, but there's always more to talk about.

So I'm hopeful we're seeing, as I say, a good engagement with his administration, including his border czar. So I hope there's always a path out of this. Yes.

John Yang:

: Is it clear what the president wants out of these talks?

Kirsten Hillman:

Well, I mean, we have to take him at his word. What he has said to us, what he's put in the executive order, is that he has concerns around border security. And when it comes to the northern border on human, you know, people crossing the border illegally, we are less than 1 percent of the people that travel into the United States for fentanyl. Again, less than 1 percent of the fentanyl that enters the U.S. market comes from the northern border.

Very small numbers. But we're still working very hard on this because any amount of fentanyl entering either of our countries is too much.

Again, we've put $1.3 billion. We've got all sorts of partnerships that we're working on with the Trump administration. We're off to China with our police force and members of the White House next week to try and get at the precursors issues. And we're ready to talk about anything else. So we are open and we hope. There's an off ramp here.

John Yang:

I know you had three Canadian cabinet ministers in Washington last week for talks. Are they still here? And you say the talks went up until Friday. Are they hopeful that they'll reopen somehow?

Kirsten Hillman:

Well, I mean, that's really up to the administration. We are here. We are ready to talk on any additional concerns that they may have in relation to the border. If there's anything that we haven't put in our plan, by all means, let us know. But we've put more boots on the ground, we've bought more equipment, we have new intelligence services.

And as I say, it's having an effect from, in the last few months, we've had an 89% drop in people crossing from Canada into the United States illegally.

John Yang:

The retaliatory tariffs.

Kirsten Hillman:

Yes.

John Yang:

If this goes into effect on Tuesday, what should American consumers expect?

Kirsten Hillman:

Well, we're your biggest customer and you sell more to us than the U.K. China, France and Japan combined. And those are sales that support a lot of businesses and a lot of jobs. 8 million jobs here in the United States. And Canadians will look elsewhere for those products because a 25 percent price increase in today's world is probably too much for most people.

So I think that Americans can expect, Americans who are trying to sell into the Canadian market whose jobs depend on that can, you know, can expect some tough times.

John Yang:

How is this resonating across Canada?

Kirsten Hillman:

So Canadians are perplexed. This is the word that I'm using. I think Canadians don't quite understand why this is coming at us. One, we have addressed and have worked to address everything that the president is concerned of with respect to the border. As I said, small problems, but problems that we are willing to lean into fully.

We are your best customer, we're your friend, we're there for you and have been through wars, through domestic disasters, through 9/11, through the hostage crisis in Iran. I mean, I don't know really, we don't have a better friend than the United States. And there is no country that wants the U.S. to succeed more than Canada.

And so I think Canadians are confused, perplexed, disappointed, but also ready to stand up for themselves. And that you are definitely seeing across the country.

John Yang:

No better friend than the United States. How do you think this is going to affect long term relationship?

Kirsten Hillman:

You know, I don't know. I hope that we will move past this very quickly. We have almost half a million people traveling between our two countries every single day for school, for work, because they have holiday homes, for family. And you've got to think that those ties are deep. You've got to think that those ties will bind us together.

But this is a big test. This is, this is tough. And I think Canadians are eager to find our path back to the fruitful partnership that we have in doing stuff together for the better good of both our countries.

John Yang:

You've talked about Canada offering things to the United States on these issues. Can you characterize these talks at all? Is it Canada offering are the United States officials asking for anything?

Kirsten Hillman:

So the way it's kind of unfolded is that the president expressed concern around again, illegal migration and fentanyl. And we were able to get together with him, but also obviously his officials to go through the data about what is actually happening at the northern border. As I say, less than 1 percent of either of those are sourced out of Canada.

But on the other hand, these are important issues and Canadians want a safe and secure border, too. And so we said, okay, where do you feel there might be gaps? Let's talk about that. We invested $1.3 billion in new equipment, new infrastructure, more people, but also these partnerships with the American law enforcement authorities so that we can get at some of these pernicious issues. So I think that has all been received very well.

I mean, I know because I've been in these meetings, it's been good discussions, technical discussions, serious discussions. And we have asked the question, is there more for us to do? It's not clear what that would be yet. But if there is, you know, we're at the end of the phone, we're ready to talk about it.

John Yang:

Kirsten Hillman, ambassador from Canada to the United States, thank you very much.

Kirsten Hillman:

Thank you.