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US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday slammed Canada as trade negotiators prepare to review the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement this year.
Asked at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC, about Canada’s former trade chief suggesting time is on Canada’s side in the talks, Lutnick responded: “That is like the worst strategy I’ve ever heard. They suck. They — look, we are a $30 trillion economy, right?”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark “Carney has a problem with us; he gets on a plane and he goes to China,” Lutnick continued. “Does he think China’s… going to buy his stuff? China is an entirely export-driven economy. So what did he do? He came back and said, ‘Oh, we’ll take their electric cars.’ I mean, is this nuts?”
A Commerce Department spokesperson said in a statement to Semafor that Lutnick was “misquoted” when he made the “suck” comment, adding: “Secretary Lutnick, describing our unfair trade imbalance with Canada, explained how Canada sucks off of our $30T economy.”
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said recently he plans to reveal the US’ position on the USMCA on June 1, one month before officials must agree to extend the landmark trade deal. Nearly 40 senators from both parties urged Greer this week to “fully enforce the existing terms” to ensure “the joint review process reinforces, rather than undermines, the stability and opportunity that USMCA delivers to America’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.”
As of now, President Donald Trump thinks USMCA is “a bad deal,” Lutnick said. “It needs to be reconsidered and reimagined correctly.”
Trump signed the current iteration during his last administration. Steve Verheul, the former Canadian trade chief who predicted “pressures on the US are only going to increase,” helped draft it.
“There are parts of Mexico that are fundamental to us; there are parts of Canada, energy and other things, that are important to us,” Lutnick said Friday. “But the concept of taking an auto plant out of Ohio and Michigan and putting it in Mexico to break the union and to break our people is nuts.”
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Also on Friday, Lutnick said the idea of Chinese automakers like BYD building factories in the US would not be on the table when Trump visits Beijing later this year.
He also said he still believes US GDP growth will hit 6% under Trump — but declined to specify whether that happens this year, as he’d predicted prior to the Iran war.
“Let’s see; let’s see,” Lutnick said. “I mean, today, the Straits of Hormuz are open.”
Already, “ships are moving” through the chokepoint, Lutnick said. Trump said earlier Friday that it was officially reopen.
“The price of oil dropped 10% this morning, so the opportunity, the concept of changing the global threat level — it’s fundamental,” Lutnick said. “What’s happened is … we have Stockholm syndrome. We’re used to terrorism being part of our society — and the concept of breaking terrorism is a unique concept that hasn’t really been driven into the risk premium of the world.”
Lutnick also said he will “for sure” still be Trump’s commerce secretary in a year’s time. One White House official told POLITICO recently that he was potentially on “thin ice” with the president, a fact that other White House officials denied.
“I think I’ve made enough money in my life,” Lutnick said. “This is the most fun I’ve ever had. All I care about is America.”
Lutnick, who rhapsodized about industrial capacity in New York, left the door open to a future bid for the state’s governor, saying: “I have never considered it, but you know, whenever I’m done with two years and nine months — then I’ll worry about the rest of my time.”