GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told CNN that he is “exasperated” by the Canada-US trade talks falling apart, after President Donald Trump increased tariffs following Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s anti-tariff ad.
“It’s Canada. It’s like, it’s like a large Minnesota, you know, I just, what I worry about is our integrated supply chain — it’s just – it’s so important,” he said.
Cramer, who says he knows Ford “pretty well,” and thinks that Ford has a lot in common with Trump, indicated Ford had miscalculated when he aired the ad.
“If you’re gonna, if you’re gonna fight with Trump, you’d better, you know, you’d better have a little, some leverage and so — but anyway, I haven’t talked about it. He obviously has been gone since, since this whole announcement. I’m anxious to visit with him about it and see what I can do to help,” he said.
Cramer added, “it was clearly a domestic political move on his part that will have geopolitical ramifications. And I just hope it doesn’t last long. When the president gets back, we can get Jamieson Greer back, negotiating.”
Pressed on how North Dakota farmers are reacting, Cramer argued that if Trump “can actually pull off a big trade deal with China that involves the sale of soybeans, all will be forgiven,” including the Argentine beef deal.
“They’re uptight, and they’ve been gracious to him, and you know – up until the Argentine beef thing is a bit of a over the top insult to our ranchers, who don’t take insults very well. But I think that that that can all be worked out and forgiven.”