Canadian foreign minister to US: Think hard about message you’re sending your closest allies

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Sunday that the U.S. should “think hard” about the message it sends to allies by imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on them.

“I would just really say to our closest allies in the world, you, the United States, please think hard about the message you are sending to your closest allies,” Freeland told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

President Trump announced last Thursday that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum from key U.S. allies, including Canada, Mexico and European Union.

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The president justified the action by citing Section 232, a rarely invoked law that allows tariffs to be placed on a country in the interest of national security.

Freeland on Sunday echoed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said that that reasoning is “insulting and unacceptable.”

“So what you are saying to us and to all of your NATO allies is that we somehow represent a national security threat to the United States,” Freeland said. “And I would just say to all of Canada’s American friends … do you really believe that Canada, that your NATO allies, represent a national security threat to you? This is a really sad time for us. We are hurt and we are insulted.”

Freeland pointed out that Canada is considered part of the U.S. national defense industrial base and has been an ally of the U.S. for 150 years.

Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on aluminum, steel and a number of consumer goods after Trump implemented the steel and aluminum tariffs.