Freeland calls tariffs ‘absurd’ after meeting U.S. Senate committee
OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland ventured Wednesday onto Donald Trump’s home turf, denouncing his “absurd” tariffs and forcefully arguing for preservation of the world’s rules-based order — with or without the United States.
Freeland reiterated Canada’s strong opposition to the American president’s steel and aluminum tariffs after meeting with the influential U.S. Senate foreign relations committee in Washington on Capitol Hill.
She was the first Canadian politician to set foot in the American capital after Trump and two of his top economic advisers launched unprecedented personal attacks on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for criticizing the tariffs at the weekend G7 summit in Quebec.
The minister stayed above the fray on those attacks, but she did not hesitate to repeat Canada’s opposition to the tariffs in the bluntest of terms — in particular the use of Section 232 of U.S. trade law to justify the action on national security grounds.