STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Canada would like a word. The United States' northern neighbor was an ally in two world wars, a friend that famously rescued Americans trapped in Iran, and a trading partner. It's also been one of the countries President Trump threatened with tariffs.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We don't need them to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don't need their lumber because we have our own forests, et cetera, et cetera. We don't need their oil and gas. We have more than anybody.
INSKEEP: The president also demanded that Canada become a U.S. state. Trump made his tariff threats to demand that Canada address border security. Canadians did, but the threat continues.
So how does Canada's ambassador see all this? Her name is Kirsten Hillman.
KIRSTEN HILLMAN: I think the Canadians recognize that the president is a negotiator, and I think that most Canadians are just eager to - for us to get down to talking about what more we could be doing in this partnership and some of the concrete advances that he's clearly looking for that we're quite keen to lean in on as well.
INSKEEP: Are you saying you don't really believe the president wants to annex Canada or start a trade war; he just wants somewhat better trade terms?
HILLMAN: Well, I think that the president recognizes that Canada is a wonderful country with amazing people and great resources, and who wouldn't want to have us within their fold? But I think Canadians are very happy being your neighbor and closest ally and best friend. And so we have to find some common space between these two perspectives.
INSKEEP: What would a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods entering the United States mean for your economy? That is a thing that he threatened to impose recently.
HILLMAN: Yeah, it would be very difficult. We have $2 1/2 billion of bilateral trade between Canada and the United States every single day. We have the biggest bilateral trading relationship in the world. So it would be a challenge for sure, but it would also be a really big challenge for Americans, for American businesses and consumers. We're your biggest customer. We buy more from the United States than any country in the world - more than China, Japan, France and the U.K. combined.
But it's also part of some very integral and critical supply chains in areas like energy, certain minerals, and you don't have other sources, really. I mean, you do. You have a few, but primarily, that's China or Russia for uranium or China for some of the minerals that are required for some of the very important work that is done here in advanced technologies.
INSKEEP: You were very polite when you said $2 1/2 billion of trade per day. You're using U.S. dollars rather than Canadian dollars, so thanks very much. That's a lot of money. And I want to note what some of those things are. There's a lot of petroleum coming from Canada to the United States, right? That's one of the things that would get more expensive in the United States?
HILLMAN: Absolutely. So we - a third of what we sell into the U.S. are energy products, including gas. And our analysts and some American analysts have forecasted that a 25% tariff on our oil and gas exports would raise the price at the pump by up to 70 cents. You know, with the president, he has a very strong agenda towards energy dominance to not only fuel the U.S. economy, but fuel the AI revolution, and Canada is a partner in that, right? Nuclear is another example. We supply you about a third of the uranium that you use, but you still get uranium from Russia. So what we are saying is, why are you doing that? Why not create a nuclear fuel partnership with Canada to make the two of us nuclear independent nations? But we can't do that if we're in a big tariff fight.
INSKEEP: The United States does run a trade deficit with Canada. I believe it's something like $60 billion per year. This is something the president really doesn't like. He chooses to see it as losing money. And a lot of Americans think that sounds bad. Is the United States losing money in its back-and-forth with Canada?
HILLMAN: So let's unpack that, Steve, because we buy more manufactured products from you than you buy from us.
INSKEEP: OK.
HILLMAN: We buy a lot more services from you than you buy from us. The reason there is a trade deficit between Canada and the United States is because we sell you - a third of what we sell are energy products, and we sell those energy products, for the most part, at a discount. And those energy products fuel your businesses, provide economical heating for your homes, and are refined and resold at a significant profit.
I would argue, though, if you want to try and balance out a trade deficit, there's two ways of doing it. You buy more or you sell less. We can try and buy more, and that may be, you know, part of what we do here in this great partnership of ours. Or we can sell you less energy 'cause we do have other customers. It's just that we have always prioritized our American friends because we want you to succeed.
INSKEEP: Ambassador Kirsten Hillman of Canada, thanks so much.
HILLMAN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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