US President Donald Trump The candidate for the ambassador to Canada reaffirmed on Thursday the importance of the American-Canadian relationship and Canadian sovereignty, despite the climbing of the White House attacks.
Pete Hoekstra declared during his confirmation hearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Canada remains an important ally on intelligence and national security issues, which can be maintained and strengthened while addressing the questions around trade.
However, the senators expressed their concern about Trump’s repeated calls to make Canada on the 51st American state, which the president said that he would use the “economic force” to be achieved.
“Canada is a sovereign state,” said Hoekstra.
He seemed to attribute Trump’s rhetoric to the icy relationship he has with outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who marked his last day in power on Thursday. Friday, Liberal chief Mark Carney will be sworn as Prime Minister.
Hoekstra agreed with the Democratic Senator Chris Coons du Delaware, who suggested that the arrival of a new Prime Minister offered an opportunity for a “reset” of the relationship.
Trump antagonized Canadians by suggesting on several occasions that the country would be “better” as an American state, pointing grievances in trade and military spending.
He repeated his threat of annexation Thursday at the Oval Office Alongside the NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, calling for the Canadian-American border an “artificial line” and has thought about the “visual” attraction to combine the two nations.
The climbing of tariff cycles on Canadian goods that started at the beginning of the month sparked a trade war that still damaged relations. Carney said Trump’s actions have broken Canada’s “confidence” in its best trading partner, and the government has sought to diversify its business away from the United States in response.
The relationship had to be approached At a meeting of G7 Foreign Ministers on Thursday in Quebec. Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford and federal officials were also in Washington to meet the US Secretary of Trade Howard Lunick on the way on prices and trade.
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Hoekstra, a former member of the Congress of Michigan and State Republican Manager who previously was an American ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s first term, said he was expecting to be the “Lance Pointe” for the new Trump administration in Canada.
He assimilated the situation to his experience by pushing the Dutch government to respect its NATO obligations and to help the United States face Russia on energy.
“There was a lot of hostility or concern about some of the objectives of the first Trump administration, which really concerned equity,” he said. “What we really spent a lot of time was to focus on the strength of the relationship between our two countries.
“We have a great working story together (with Canada). We know how to make it work. We must now take this and say: “We know how to do this job, do our experience now and apply to the priorities that the president has described: a freer and fairer business so that we can really develop trade relations between Canada and the United States”
Trump and Lutnick said their pricing policies were intended to bring investments and manufacturing to the United States, with little consideration for their impact on Canadian industries as the automotive sector.
No question of republicans
Almost all of the questions in Hoekstra, who appeared alongside Trump’s candidates to the ambassadors to Mexico and Japan, were posed by the Democrats of the Committee who highlighted the effiloche relations with Canada.
Some of these senators have promised to work with Hoekstra to push Canada to increase its defense expenses and respect its NATO commitments, a long -standing irritant for American legislators in both parties.
“We have a great alliance with Canada on national security issues,” said Hoekstra. “It would help if Canada encountered its NATO commitment. They are one of the eight or nine countries that fail, clearly short, without any real plan to get there anytime soon. »»
The federal government said it had a “clear and credible” path to reach NATO’s goal of spending at least 2% of GDP in defense by 2032 or earlier, but has not published details on how it will be achieved.
The Republicans focused on the other two candidates, supporting them on border security with Mexico and the importance of countering China in Indo-Pacific.
The Republicans in the Congress largely ignored Trump’s comments on the Annex of Canada or sometimes have supported them openly. The American Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee in January Published a postal coverage of New York This called Trump’s “vision of the hemisphere” – including making Canada the 51st state – “Trump doctrine” and celebrated Trump’s “big dreams” for America.
Huesktra said the United States wanted to see the intelligence sharing relationship of the five extended eyes to include law enforcement organizations on both sides of the border, so that not only repress the smuggling of fentanyl but other cross-border threats.
“It is not a huge quantity (fentanyl) that crosses our Canada border, but … tomorrow it could be something else,” he said.
“If confirmed, I will do everything I can to strengthen this relationship over five eyes, the cooperation of the police, trade – these are all opportunities to make Canada and America safer, secure and more prosperous. Closer cooperation. »»
Trump justified the 25% tariffs he imposed in Canada and Mexico on March 4 to put pressure on the two countries to increase efforts to prevent fentanyl from flowing in the United States
Less than one percent of the fentanyl that enters the United States comes from Canada, with less than 20 kilograms entered by American customs and border protection last year. January, the agents met only 13 grams of fatal opioid, the lowest level in two years and down compared to a record level in monthly crises last summer.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the best democrat of the Committee, stressed that more drugs are encountered in northern United States circulation in Canada than what American border workers grabbed Canada.
“Let’s be honest on what’s going on here,” she said.
Hoekstra has also recognized the concerns raised by Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland who priced Canadian products and the woods will make the construction of houses in the United States, which faces a housing shortage in several more expensive cities.
“It is not brain surgery,” he said with a little laugh.
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