Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Hillman: Canadians Are ‘Perplexed’ and Confused by Trump’s Tariffs

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
STEPHANOPOULOS: “So if these negotiations do not bear fruit before Tuesday, what exactly is going to happen on Tuesday?”

HILLMAN: “So on our side, we will be implementing 25% tariffs on U.S. Products. We will go up to $100 billion U.S. Worth of products. We will start with about $30 billion, and then we will give notice of the remainder of the products, probably for about 20, 21 days, and then implement those if need be, if we haven’t found a way out of this situation.”

STEPHANOPOULOS: “And what will be the message to Canadians? Would it be to stop using products from the United States, to boycott?”

HILLMAN: “Well, I’ll be honest. We as a government aren’t necessarily needing to send that message. Canadians are perplexed, I think disappointed. We view ourselves as your neighbor, your closest friend, your ally, you know, a country whose citizens have fought and died with you around the world in defense of values that we share, who come to the aid of the Los Angeles fires most recently, and I think are really perplexed by this move. So I don’t think anybody will need to tell Canadians what to do. I think that they will make their decisions on their own.”

STEPHANOPOULOS: “You say perplexed. You Canadians feel bebetrayed?”

HILLMAN: “I think they’re confused. I don’t think they understand where this is coming from. I think they know the degree to which we have made every effort to address the president’s concerns, and so they just don’t understand where this is coming from, and probably there’s a little bit of hurt, right? We have 400,000 to 500,000 people that move back and forth between our two countries every day. Businesses, tourists, students, workers, and there’s a sense of partnership, of family, of — of being each other’s best — as I say, best customer, best friend.”