"If you cut off trade with us, we will be forced to turn to Venezuela." This is the warning made by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly. In response to the United States' plans to impose high tariffs and cut off trade.
Melanie Joly, in a statement to the Financial Times, said that the US president's threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports would hit "real people" if relations between the two countries escalated into a trade war.
"We ship discounted oil, which is ultimately refined in Texas. If it's not us, it's Venezuela," Joly said, referring to the large quantities of oil produced in Venezuela and Canada, on which American refineries depend heavily.
"There are no other options on the table and this administration does not want to work with Venezuela," Joly said.
US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping sanctions on Venezuela during his first term in the White House.
Joly was in the U.S. capital leading Canada's last-minute efforts to avoid the first full-blown trade war of the new Trump administration, with the president threatening again on Thursday to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Feb. 1.
Trump said he was considering exempting oil imports from the tariffs — reflecting the U.S.’s dependence on its neighbor for major energy supplies. Despite rising oil production in states such as Texas, Canada accounts for about one in every five barrels of oil consumed in the U.S. and about 60 percent of imported crude.
Ottawa and Mexico City have both drafted lists of retaliatory tariffs to issue against the US in the event that Trump pulls the trigger on tariffs against them, people with knowledge of the matter previously told the FT. (A2 Televizion)
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