Trump commerce pick defends tariffs, hints at fight with Canada over dairy
Donald Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary on Wednesday defended the use of tariffs to create “fairness” and denied they will be inflationary, while also hinting at a looming fight with Canada over dairy market access.Billionaire financier Howard Lutnick told his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing that the 25 per cent tariffs Trump has vowed to impose on Canada and Mexico starting Saturday are meant purely to compel border security improvements from both countries, particularly to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.“If we are your biggest trading partner, show us respect: shut your border and end fentanyl coming into this country,” Lutnick said.“It’s not a tariff, per se, it is an action of domestic policy.
… As far as I know, they are acting swiftly, and if they execute it there will be no tariff.”Although the amount of fentanyl seized at the northern U.S. border is a small fraction of what authorities have encountered coming from Mexico, those northern seizures have risen more than 200 per cent over the past two years, according to U.S.
Customs and Border Patrol data.Ottawa has rolled out a border security plan that includes additional investments in enforcement and detection of drug and human smuggling. New technologies and equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters, are among those investments.Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said Canada should take Lutnick’s comments about border security “seriously” and at “face value,” but said he’s confident in the work the government has done to address those concerns.
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