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The United States would be forced to buy geopolitical rivals such as Venezuela if it disrupted trade with Canada, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ottawa warned.
Mélanie Joly told Financial Times that the American president’s threat to impose 25% of Canadian imports would strike “real people” if relations between the two countries descended a trade war.
“We are sending oil to a discount which is ultimately refined in Texas. If it is not us, it’s Venezuela, “said Joly, referring to the strong petroleum notes produced in Venezuela and Canada on which many American refineries depend.
“There is no other option on the table, and this administration does not want to work with Venezuela,” said Joly.
President Donald Trump imposed radical sanctions in Caracas during his first mandate at the White House.
Joly was in the American capital of spearhead of the last minute in Canada to avoid the first full -fledged trade war of the new Trump administration, the president threatening again on Thursday to apply 25% prices in Canada and Mexico From February 1.
The president said he was planning to exclude prices for oil imports – reflecting the dependence of the United States with regard to his neighbor for the huge energy supplies.
Despite the outbreak of shale oil production in states like Texas, Canada represents approximately one in five oil barrels consumed in the United States and around 60% of its imported crude.
Many American refineries depend on the type of heavy oil produced in Canada or Venezuela – and not on the lighter notes produced by the American prolific shale industry.
Joly, who went to Washington to meet the American secretary of state Marco Rubio and other senior American officials, said that she had also warned the Capitol Hill legislators that trade tensions would hit “real people” , especially in republican states.
“We don’t want that,” said Joly. “We want us to be in a win-win position, and we think we can offer it.”
Ottawa and Mexico City have both established lists of reprisals to issue the United States in the event that Trump is pulling the prices against them, people knowing the issue told the FT.
Canadian Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has promised “Tit-For-Tat” samples from American products such as steel and orange juice if Trump then his threats.
Trump has launched repeated widths against Canada in recent weeks, describing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor” and saying that the country should become the 51st American state.
Trump said in a speech earlier this month than a American annexation of Canada “would be really something” and that he could use “economic strength” to do so.
Joly said the idea had passed during any of his meetings with US officials. “Absolutely not,” she replied, when asked.
“We can be very good friends, best friends, but we will never be a state or a colony, a period,” she said.
Canada and Mexico have also tried to demonstrate to Trump that they obtain their vast land borders with the United States in response to its claims that drugs and migrants cross illegally in its country.
“On the border, I think we get a good traction,” said Joly, adding that she would meet Trump Tom Homan’s tsar Friday.
Canada is committed to spending $ 1 billion on border security and recently deployed newly rented Black Hawk patrol helicopters, additional dogs and 60 drones on the border in part in response to Trump’s requests – as well as Concerns about weapons and undocumented migrants arriving from the United States -.
Joly said: “We also wanted to strengthen the border on our side, because we are concerned about the flow of illegal weapons from the United States and the potential flow of illegal migrants from the United States.”
Trump threatened to expel millions of people without permanent legal status from the United States, which has raised that some migrants go to Canada to take refuge.
Joly said that if the American president had clearly linked his early price threat of 25% with border security, the United States and Canada would examine their larger trade relations, including the North American trade agreement signed by Trump during his last administration, as part of a separate process.
