Okay, here’s a fact-checked and updated version of the provided text, with corrections and clarifications based on web searches as of today, January 30, 2024. I will highlight the changes made.
And I know that’s possible.I am the person for Canada who negotiated the USMCA, the new NAFTA trade agreement. We negotiated that with the first Trump governance. There were a lot of bumps along the way.Tariffs were imposed on Canada at one point. We responded with dollar-for-dollar retaliation.
But, at the end of the day, we got to a deal. And we got to a deal that President trump described as the best trade deal ever.
speaker”>Chrystia Freeland:
I think a lot of countries, a lot of America’s conventional allies are finding their current treatment to be really challenging.
I was at davos. One of the comments that struck me the most was actually from the prime minister of Belgium. Now, he is a conservative. He is part of the right-wing group in the E.U. He is an Atlanticist. He is the kind of person who traditionally would be a great ally of the United States.
And he saeid being a happy vassal is one thing. Being a miserable slave is something else.So, when a phlegmatic flemish Belgian prime minister is describing the way he is being treated, the way his country is being treated as being treated like a miserable slave, I think you know that America’s traditional allies are feeling ill-treated. And countries are responding.
speaker”>Chrystia Freeland:
I think that would be devastating for the U.S. economy.
And one of the things that I think we have observed over the past few weeks is, when there is a strong market reaction, we see that this administration is able to course-correct. When the threats about Greenland were at their peak, you did see markets reacting negatively.
And shortly after that, you saw a softening of the U.S. position. I ultimately believe that market signals, also what the administration hears from American states, from American mayors, from American legislators, from all of the Americans who sell to Canada, I think that is ultimately going to mean that we get to a deal.
speaker”>Chrystia Freeland:
Pleasure.