President Donald
Trump singled out Canadian dairy industry trade practices on Thursday,
bashing America's northern neighbor for their rules on imported dairy products.
"In Canada,
what they've done to our dairy farm workers is a disgrace. It's a
disgrace," Trump said in the Oval Office, without elaborating on what he
meant.
The comments came as the President welcomed union leaders,
steel workers and CEOs of steel companies for the signing of the memorandum
ordering an investigation into steel dumping.
Trump made similar remarks in Wisconsin on Tuesday, calling
the dairy trade relationship between the United States and Canada "very,
very unfair."
"We're also going to stand up for our dairy farmers in
Wisconsin," Trump told the crowd. "I've been reading about it and
I've been talking about it for a long time and that demands, really,
immediately, fair trade with all of our trading partners."
"That includes Canada, because, in Canada, some very
unfair things have happened to our dairy farmers and others," Trump
continued. "It's another typical one-sided deal against the United States
and it's not going to be happening for long."
Other dairy-producing countries oppose Canada's current protectionist policies, which include high tariffs on
imported milk and cheese products.
Trump then revisited his past, repeated criticism of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), calling it "a disaster for
our country."
"It's a trading disaster," Trump said. "We
will be reporting back sometime over the next few weeks as to NAFTA and what we
are going to do about it."
Source: ABC News