{"id":451297,"date":"2026-02-05T22:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/451297\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T22:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:16:13","slug":"u-s-would-absolutely-not-drop-all-tariffs-if-canada-did-same-bessent-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/451297\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. would \u2018absolutely not\u2019 drop all tariffs if Canada did same: Bessent – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration would \u201cabsolutely not\u201d eliminate all of its tariffs<\/a> on Canada if Ottawa did the same for American goods, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent<\/a> said Thursday, citing Canada\u2019s recent trade agreement with China and the threat of Chinese electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

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During testimony in front of the U.S. Senate banking committee, Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana asked Bessent to explain the rationale behind the administration\u2019s tariff strategy.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said his understanding is that the \u201cforemost reason\u201d for the tariffs is trying to \u201cstop other countries from taking advantage of us\u201d through their own trade barriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Canada, for example, came to the United States and said, \u2018We\u2019re going to zero tariffs on the United States, all of them are off on our end,\u2019 would you [and the] president go to zero tariffs and let Canadian companies and American companies compete on a level playing field?\u201d Kennedy asked.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d Bessent replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw two weeks ago when Prime Minister Carney went to China, he lowered tariffs on Chinese EVs from 100 per cent to six per cent. The U.S. has 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese EVs. We couldn\u2019t let our northern border be used as a way for Chinese EVs to come into the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTrump threatens tariffs on Canada over China trade ties\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Carney announced last month that Ottawa will drop its tariffs to six per cent on up to 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles that will be allowed to be sold in Canada.<\/a><\/p>\n

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The deal, which was struck in return for Beijing lifting some of its tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods, has caused concern within the Trump administration<\/a> about China gaining access to the North American auto market.<\/p>\n

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U.S. President Donald Trump, who initially called the prospect of a Canada-China trade deal \u201ca good thing,\u201d has since soured on the agreement and warned that China \u201cwill eat Canada alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also threatened 100 per cent tariffs on Canada if it pursues free trade with China, something Carney has said is not happening.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCarney says \u201cwe are not\u201d and \u201cnever have\u201d pursued free trade deal with China\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

While Ottawa argues a vast majority of Canadian goods sold to the U.S. are exempt from Trump\u2019s tariffs due to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade (CUSMA), sectors like autos, steel and lumber are facing heavy additional duties.<\/p>\n

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra has said<\/a> Canada should expect some tariffs to remain in place even if CUSMA is renewed after this summer\u2019s scheduled review. Trump has also floated the possibility of letting the trade pact expire or withdrawing the U.S. from it, which would significantly increase U.S. tariffs on Canada.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tBessent asked about drop in Canadian tourism to U.S.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tThese are the Canadians with \u2018consistent low income,\u2019 new data shows\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Bessent faced skepticism over the administration\u2019s tariff strategy from both Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate committee, who brought up higher prices for American consumers and impacts to states\u2019 tourism and service industries due to international travellers avoiding the U.S.<\/p>\n

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada pointed to the 12 straight months of declining travel from Canada to the U.S. last year, which she said was a 20 per cent decrease for her state alone, where Las Vegas is a top destination for Canadian tourists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you apologize for driving away visitors and hurting our working families?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Bessent responded by claiming Canadian tourism is down because \u201cthe Canadian economy is doing poorly\u201d and that tariffs weren\u2019t tied to tourism declines.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think that we should pull down all of our trade barriers with China so that 1.4 billion people can fill up the hotel rooms in Las Vegas?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

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Cortez Masto noted \u201cit\u2019s not just Canada\u201d that is shunning U.S. travel but several other countries that Trump has attacked with tariffs and divisive rhetoric, and that the U.S. Travel Association has forecast a nearly US$70-billion deficit for 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

Bessent suggested Americans themselves were filling the void left by international tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a trillion-dollar industry, and you don\u2019t seem to think it\u2019s important,\u201d Cortez Masto shot back.<\/p>\n

The secretary faced tough questioning on Wednesday as well during an often-heated hearing at the U.S. House of Representatives financial services committee.<\/p>\n

In one notable exchange, Democratic Rep. Sean Casten pressed him on a letter he sent in 2024 to partners of his Key Square investment firm \u2014 before Bessent was in government \u2014 in which he wrote that \u201ctariffs\u00a0are\u00a0inflationary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Asked if he wanted to correct his remarks, Bessent said he did and that he was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was mistaken, I want to correct it. And I was also mistaken when I said the tariffs could be inflationary,\u201d he told the lawmakers, claiming the U.S. economy is growing and inflation is falling despite Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo tariff inflation was the dog that didn\u2019t bark,\u201d Bessent added.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration would \u201cabsolutely not\u201d eliminate all of its tariffs on Canada if Ottawa did the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,103,9086,101,111,4666,795],"class_list":{"0":"post-451297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-donald-trump-tariffs","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-scott-bessent","14":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}