00:00So, what can we expect from the Trump administration now that talks with Canada are back on?
00:05Pete Hoekstra is the U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Welcome back to the program.
00:09Good to be here. Thanks. Thank you for the invite.
00:11Happy to have you at such an interesting time.
00:13Now, Canada has given the U.S. government what it wants.
00:16We're sending the digital services tax.
00:18Did Canada get anything in exchange, Ambassador?
00:20Well, I think what the president and the prime minister did is they put the talks back on track.
00:30Okay. I mean, one of the president's advisors came out today and said, yeah, we're ready to start talking today.
00:37I think the prime minister has indicated something very similar.
00:40So, yeah, let's get this back on track.
00:42And I think there were some, you know, some not so nice things that could have happened if, you know, we hadn't seen the developments over the weekend.
00:52Now, it's all positive things.
00:54Not so nice things. You mean tariffs?
00:55Well, I mean, the president indicated in his message last week, Friday, he talked about tariffs.
01:01Our Treasury Secretary indicated that there would have been a beginning of a 301 investigation into the unfair nature of the digital services tax that would have been initiated most likely today.
01:14Neither one of those things is going to happen.
01:16So we're going to be talking about positive things in terms of how do we get to an agreement.
01:20Okay. I did not hear you say whether or not Canada got something in exchange for rescinding the DST.
01:26But the White House press secretary was pretty pointed.
01:28She said today Canada caved.
01:30Canada got a reopening of the discussions, which Friday night, you know, wasn't there.
01:38Friday night it was done.
01:39Okay. Friday night it was, we're done talking.
01:43You know, we will pursue other avenues on the digital services tax.
01:50You know, the president talks about 18 countries that we want to negotiate with.
01:55Canada moved from the front of the line to the back of the line.
01:57Today they are back at the front of the line.
01:59Did Canada cave or not, Ambassador?
02:01Do you share that assessment?
02:02I, you know, I've got the utmost respect for our president.
02:06I have the utmost respect for your prime minister.
02:09They've developed a personal friendship and I think a colleagueship that I wouldn't describe caving or whatever.
02:19I just say, hey, these two guys, and I've said this before, they're two leaders in a hurry to help the people of their country.
02:28And they both agree that this was a positive way to go.
02:31And yet the U.S. would have known, knew, that this was coming for some time, right?
02:36This is something that Canada has talked about since 2020.
02:38The law passed a year ago.
02:39And yet it just suddenly became a red line visibly to the public on Friday.
02:44And I wonder, was this just part of the art of the deal?
02:47No, well, I don't, the art of the deal.
02:49I mean, the president was, this came up at the White House when the president and the prime minister talked.
02:55I specifically remember talking with Greer, our trade representative, saying, hey, is this on your radar screen?
03:04He said, oh, yeah.
03:04He said, I wrote the protest to the digital services tax.
03:08It is right up there on our radar screen.
03:11It came up again multiple times at Kenanaskis in the meetings that I was in.
03:17And again, including the meeting with the president and the prime minister.
03:19So, yeah, we all knew the president's team had articulated clearly for as long as I've been in this position.
03:30This is a red line.
03:33And so from so there was always the hope and the expectation that being in the middle of negotiations,
03:40you know, being, hoping and anticipating that we might have an agreement in two and a half, three weeks,
03:47that this would be a bad time to implement a new, a whole new element into the discussion.
03:55But it happened.
03:56There was a response.
03:58There was a counter response.
03:59And now we're back on track.
04:00You say we're back on track.
04:01Do you think the two countries still have a hope of meeting that 30-day deadline?
04:05Is there still a possibility of a deal?
04:06Because it obviously lost a few days.
04:08I've talked to both sides over the weekend.
04:12I think both sides are optimistic that they can get to an agreement within that time frame.
04:18It doesn't mean it's going to happen.
04:21You know, there's always something that can sidetrack it.
04:23But they both want to get to an agreement.
04:26They've got qualified staffs.
04:28We've got smart people in the room that are working on this,
04:30that they have the capability, the desire, and the will to get there.
04:36You are being very positive about all of this, talking about things being on track.
04:41U.S. President said in his interview with Fox News over the weekend that Canada is, quote,
04:45very nasty to deal with.
04:47How is Canada nasty, Ambassador?
04:49Well, I think Canada, well, I want to be very, very positive because the relationship is a great relationship.
04:57And these are the words of your president.
04:58No, no, no, I know.
04:59And we're going to be stronger after this than maybe what we are right now.
05:02It's going to be an even stronger relationship.
05:05But, you know, what is the president thinking about?
05:08Oh, they just slapped a brand new tax on us that we've told them for months is an unfair tax.
05:14Oh, by the way, you have 11 out of your 13 provinces who ban American products on their shelves.
05:21We haven't banned a single Canadian product in the United States.
05:26That's a pretty nasty move, okay?
05:29You have a number of your provinces have put in provisions into their procurement process that say,
05:38oh, if you're an American company, oh, yep, you know, you can't bid.
05:42That's pretty nasty.
05:43But that was in response to the U.S. slapping major tariffs on this country.
05:48Exactly right now.
05:49So responding is nasty?
05:51I'm just trying to get to the heart of this, Ambassador.
05:52Where we are today.
05:53Okay.
05:55I will accept your characterization of potentially putting tariffs in place, okay?
06:0190 to 95 percent of the products that we trade are U.S. MCA compliant,
06:10which means there are not tariffs on them.
06:14Yes.
06:14I mean, I think we can both acknowledge that the road to get there was pretty complicated.
06:17We simplified some of those, okay?
06:21Well, let's talk about the path forward because I know you're enthusiastic about that.
06:24Donald Trump also complained in that interview about supply management, right?
06:28The access to the U.S. market when it comes to, or the American's access to our market when it comes to things like dairy and poultry.
06:35You would know, of course, that there is a law that is passed that hamstrings the Canadian government's ability to make concessions on supply management.
06:42That means perhaps that there's not a lot the government can do.
06:47Do you think that stands in the way of a deal?
06:49I was part of that other group, not parliament, but Congress, the equivalent of part.
06:55Two systems are different, but I was part of Congress.
06:58And I understand what your parliament said about you can't do that.
07:05I also know that at times we in Congress would do the same thing, you know, to our president or executive branch saying you can't do that.
07:12I have a high, you know, I have a high problem, I have a strong belief that if we negotiated a trade, that if the prime minister and the president got to a trade agreement, okay?
07:27And for whatever reason, it included something that parliament said, you can't do that, that the prime minister probably could find a way to get parliament to do its will, just like the president today and, you know, over the weekend has been working with Congress to try to pass the big, beautiful bill, our tax bill.
07:50You know, prime ministers and presidents, they've got a tremendous amount of power.
07:55I would, I'll leave it there.
07:59Okay.
08:00There's a lot more we could say about supply management.
08:02We only have a moment left.
08:02Oh, there's a lot we could say about supply management.
08:05Absolutely.
08:06And I do want to ask you about the 51st state.
08:09You had to have known this question was coming because, of course, the president brought it up again over the weekend.
08:13It does seem to come up when things are getting a bit tense and a bit intense.
08:18Is Donald Trump using threats against Canada's sovereignty as a negotiating tactic?
08:24It is not a threat.
08:25How is it saying that Canada should become a state?
08:27He said we're not a real country before.
08:29I think, you know, your prime minister, I forget what he said within the last week or something and said, you know, this is a, he didn't use exactly this word, but a term of endearment.
08:40You know, he loves-
08:40He has said it's a wish, a desire rather than a desire.
08:44A wish and a desire.
08:45Term of it.
08:46Do you think it's a term of endearment, Ambassador Hoekstra?
08:48Yeah, President Trump doesn't invite people onto his team who he doesn't like, who he doesn't trust, who he doesn't respect.
08:58You know, he wants a strong team.
08:59So your message to Canadians is they should see this 51st state talk as a term of endearment.
09:04I, you know, they can see it however they want.
09:07Far be it from me to tell Canadians how they should view the president's comments.
09:12But the president does not invite people on his team, on America's team, or to grow our team with the belief that by doing so, we're going to weaken America or weaken them.
09:27The president has said it.
09:28He said it when we met.
09:29We're in the Oval Office.
09:30I love Canada.
09:32Yeah, there's inviting on the team, and then they're suggesting taking the country by economic force.
09:37We are not going to take the country on.
09:38So I do want to ask you in closing.
09:40You have said before that the president is done with this 51st state business.
09:45Yeah, you said he might mention it, but okay.
09:46I said we were done.
09:47Yeah.
09:48It would only come up if, you know, someone's going to go back and get my exact words, but I believe it was somewhere along the lines.
09:56If it comes up again, it will be because of the president bringing it up, the prime minister bringing it up, but it will not be me.
10:06I have no instructions or whatever to move and, you know, work with people in parliament or at the provincial level to say, hey, let's talk about how we can get this 51st state thing moving again.
10:20And, you know, the, yeah.
10:23The gist I understood of what you were saying, and we can check the tape later, is that this chapter was closed.
10:29The prime minister seemed to insinuate that too.
10:30Do Canadians just have to live with, on the eve of Canada Day, do Canadians just have to live with this term of endearment of 51st state, as you put it?
10:38The, they have to, they have to live with what the president said.
10:44If they want to, if they want to spend Canada Day focused on what the president said over the weekend, they can do that.
10:51The forecast is we're going to have a great day.
10:54You've got, Diane and I are finding out, you've got all kinds of celebrations and events that are planned.
11:00You're going to have fireworks.
11:02You know, I think there's a whole lot of better things to be spending tomorrow on, to be spending on Canada Day than, you know, thinking about what the president said over the weekend.
11:17Okay.
11:17Yeah.
11:17A day to celebrate Canada's sovereignty.
11:19Ambassador.
11:20We are going to be celebrating Canada Day for the first time.
11:23Celebrating Canada's sovereignty?
11:25Celebrating Canada's sovereignty.
11:27We did it multiple times in the Netherlands.
11:30Yeah, that's what we're going to be doing.
11:32And I hope that's what Canadians are focused on as well.
