Canada Fires Back After Trump Complaint

Canada's ambassador to Washington said Tuesday night that President Trump is wrong when he says Canada's trade practices in the dairy industry are "very unfair." Trump spoke out against Canada on Tuesday in a way he's not done before, saying Canada has been "very, very unfair" to dairy farmers and "we're going to start working on that," the AP reports. Ambassador David MacNaughton said in a letter to the governors of Wisconsin and New York, who asked Trump to address dairy practices, that "Canada does not accept the contention that Canada's dairy policies are the cause of financial loss for dairy farmers in the United States."

MacNaughton attached a USDA dairy outlook report that he said "clearly indicates the poor results in the US sector are due to US and global overproduction." MacNaughton argues that the Canada dairy industry is less protectionist than that of the US, which he says has employed technical barriers to keep Canadian products out. "It is important that we work together to grow the middle class, and not lay blame where it does not belong," MacNaughton writes. The US dairy lobby accuses Canada of "systemic disregard" of its trade obligations, while the Canadian industry accuses its American rival of "scapegoating." (Trump's remarks came while he was in Wisconsin to sign his "Buy American" order.)