The Tuesday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories
Highlights from the news file for Tuesday, April 18
———
TRUMP TAKES DIRECT AIM AT CANADIAN DAIRY: U.S. President Donald Trump singled Canada out by name Tuesday as he put dairy farmers north of the border on notice that they are in America’s fair-trade sights. Trump also signalled he wants to do more than simply tweak the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying he is looking for “very big changes” to the trilateral pact that includes Mexico, or else he will scrap it once and for all. Trump levelled the threats — some of his strongest-ever anti-Canadian rhetoric — during an event at a Wisconsin factory where he unveiled his “Buy American-Hire American” executive order. Other countries have taken runs at Canada’s sacrosanct supply-management system in previous trade negotiations, and Trump appeared to be taking dead aim during his appearance Tuesday. “When it comes to wasteful destructive job killing regulations, we are going to use a tool you know very well — it’s called the sledgehammer,” Trump said. Standing up for dairy farmers in Wisconsin “demands fair trade with all of our trading partners,” Trump said, “and that includes Canada.” In Canada, he continued, “some very unfair things have happened to our dairy farmers and others and we’re going to start working on that.”
———