Canada 'overreacting' to US steel and aluminum tariffs, WH economic adviser Larry Kudlow says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is "overreacting" to President Trump's decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on the country, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“To say that this is an attack on Canada is not right,” said Kudlow, who last week compared the situation to "a family disagreement."
"I don’t think our tariffs are anything to do with our friendship and longstanding alliance with Canada,” Kudlow said. He added: "This is a trade dispute, if you will. It can be resolved, if people work together.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The comments came as Trudeau took a more aggressive tone on "Meet the Press" in an interview that aired on Sunday, even as he compared Canada to the stoic, "even-tempered" moose.
"This is a trade dispute, if you will. It can be resolved, if people work together.”
"We're going to be polite, but we're not going to be pushed around," Trudeau said.
CANADA HOPES RETALIATORY TRADE MEASURES WILL GET TRUMP TO BACK DOWN
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But Trudeau, who on Thursday called the tariffs "totally unacceptable," signaled that he was open to the kind of conciliation that Kudlow suggested.
"We're aware that we have to work collectively and collaboratively with the United States and that, quite frankly, has been my point with the president since the very beginning," Trudeau said.
Trump had initially imposed the new tariffs in March -- saying a reliance on imported metals threatened national security -- but he had previously exempted Canada, Mexico and the European Union to buy time for negotiations.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After Trump lifted those exemptions, Trudeau tweeted last week that the measure amounted to an "attack on our industry" and vowed to impose "dollar for dollar" retaliatory tariffs on the U.S.
"Our soldiers who had fought and died together on the beaches of World War II and the mountains of Afghanistan, and have stood shoulder to shoulder in some of the most difficult places in the world, that are always there for each other, somehow — this is insulting to them," Trudeau said on "Meet the Press."
TRUMP: 'UNFAIR' TRADE PRACTICES CAN NO LONGER BE TOLERATED
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The idea that the Canadian steel that's in military, military vehicles in the United States, the Canadian aluminum that makes your, your fighter jets is somehow now a threat?" he continued. "The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable."
But in an interview on Fox Business Network's "Sunday Morning Futures," House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro said the tariffs are necessary "for national security reasons."
"The national security issue is a flood of imports from 20 countries that are putting our aluminum and steel industries out of business---the national security interest ... is us defending ourselves against that flood of imports, so those industries can survive," Navarro said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The president is going to defend this country," he added.