Trump says he made up facts about trade deficit in meeting with Trudeau

[New Person]

'I didn't even know': Trump insisted to Trudeau that U.S. runs a trade deficit with Canada
The Canadian Press · Posted: Mar 15, 2018 1:36 AM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago

U.S. President Donald Trump, shown with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House last year, told a fundraiser that after Trudeau told him the U.S. does not have a trade deficit with Canada, he replied, "Wrong, Justin, you do." (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
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U.S. President Donald Trump boasted in a fundraising speech in Missouri on Wednesday that he made up facts about trade in a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to a recording of the comments obtained by The Washington Post.

The newspaper said in a report posted on its website that Trump had insisted to Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbour to the north without knowing whether or not that was the case.

Trump said on the recording that after Trudeau told him the U.S. does not have a trade deficit with Canada, he replied, "Wrong, Justin, you do," then added, "I didn't even know ... I had no idea."

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The president said he then "sent one of our guys out" to check the prime minister's claim.

"Well, sir, you're actually right," Trump says in the recording. "We have no deficit but that doesn't include energy and timber and when you do, we lose $17 billion a year. It's incredible."

Trump regularly bemoans a trade deficit with Canada and complained about it in late February by saying: "We lose a lot with Canada. People don't know it. Canada's very smooth. They have you believe that it's wonderful. And it is, for them. Not wonderful for us."

U.S. runs trade surplus with Canada, U.S. says
But a different story is told in the recently released 2018 White House "Economic Report of the President" — an annual document prepared by Trump's own team which bears his signature and contradicts a number of trade statements and policies already articulated by him.

One example involves the supposed trade deficit with Canada. Trump keeps insisting it exists, but the document he signed states Canada is among the few countries in the world with whom the U.S. runs a surplus.

The document states: "The United States ran a trade surplus of $2.6 billion with Canada on a balance-of-payments basis."

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Bruce Heyman, the U.S. ambassador to Canada until January, blasted Trump in a series of tweets early Thursday while also apologizing to Canada for Trump's reported comments.

"Lying to your friends only hurts the relationship," he wrote. "Canada has been there for us thru thick and thin. How can you casually damage this relationship? Shame on you!"

Heyman added that the president is "casually throwing Canada under the bus and this is just wrong."

 

[ottawa_tj]

 

[4188]

Canadian officials are once again disputing U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that his country runs a trade deficit with its neighbour to the north.

Trump boasted in a fundraising speech in Missouri on Wednesday that he made up figures regarding the supposed trade deficit in a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to a recording of the comments obtained by the Washington Post.

Trump says on the recording that after Trudeau told him the U.S. does not have a trade deficit with Canada, he replied, "Wrong, Justin, you do" — then adds, "I didn't even know ... I had no idea."

The president said he then sent a staff member to double-check the claim.

"Well, sir, you're actually right," Trump says in the recording. "We have no deficit but that doesn't include energy and timber and when you do, we lose $17 billion a year. It's incredible."

Trump doubled down on the trade deficit claim on Twitter Thursday morning.

"We do have a trade deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries," he said. "They do. They almost all do and that's how I know!"

A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland disputed Trump's trade tally.

"Canada and the United States have a balanced and mutually beneficial trading relationship. According to their own statistics, the U.S. runs a trade surplus with Canada," spokesperson Adam Austen said.

 

[New Person]

After Trump’s misleading remarks to Trudeau, Canada restates the facts

While there was a collective eye roll from the Canadian media and commentators on social media, government spokesmen simply repeated U.S. government statistics that the United States has a trade surplus with its neighbor to the north.

Trump told a fundraising dinner Wednesday that when he met Trudeau, he “had no idea” what the U.S. trade balance was with Canada but nevertheless insisted that the United States ran a deficit with the country. The president’s comments came just a week after he announced steep tariffs on aluminum and steel imports. Canada is temporarily exempt from the levies while the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is renegotiated.

“Canada and the United States have a balanced and mutually beneficial trading relationship,” said Adam Austen, a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. “The Office of the United States Trade Representative confirms that the U.S. goods and services trade surplus with Canada was $12.5 billion in 2016.”

The Canadian ambassador to Washington, David MacNaughton, tweeted a similar message, adding that the U.S. trade surplus was $12.5 billion “including energy and lumber,” to counter Trump’s insistence that the surplus turned to a deficit if energy and “timber” were included. The United States runs a trade surplus with Canada in services.

Marc Garneau, Canada’s transport minister and chairman of a cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations, told reporters that the two countries do more than $2 billion a day in mutual trade and that “overall, annually, the United States has a small surplus with Canada.”

“So we can talk about balanced trade between the two countries, huge amounts of trade, and this is something we want to continue to improve as we negotiate the NAFTA agreement,” Garneau said. Trump has repeatedly called NAFTA a “disaster,” including at Wednesday’s dinner.