President Trump claimed the U.S. would “agree to a fair deal,” or else there would be no deal with Canada as the two nations discuss renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“The United States has been taken advantage of for many decades on trade,” Trump said in a statement. “Those days are over. Earlier today, this message was conveyed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada: The United States will agree to a fair deal, or there will be no deal at all.”
The statement comes after Trudeau said Thursday afternoon that a meeting with Trump didn’t occur earlier this week because Vice President Mike Pence told the prime minister he must allow a five-year sunset clause to be included in the trade agreement in order for the meeting to even happen. Trudeau called the condition “completely unacceptable.”
The sunset clause would allow the agreement to end unless the countries involved decided to renew it.
“I had to highlight that there was no possibility of any Canadian prime minister signing a NAFTA deal that included a five-year sunset clause, and obviously the visit didn’t happen,” Trudeau said Thursday.
“So I answered that if that was a precondition to my visit I was unable to accept,” Trudeau said. “And so we did not go to Washington.”
Earlier Thursday, U.S. allies including Mexico and Canada were hit with tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The tariffs will take effect Friday.
[Also read: Trump ends his nice-guy routine on trade]
