US transportation secretary calls Canada "foolish" amid trade dispute

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called Canada “foolish” for challenging the Trump administration in the ongoing trade dispute between the two countries, warning that Ottawa could not prevail in a military confrontation with the United States.

“We were great trading partners, but Canada gets the benefit of trading with the US way more than the US gets trading with Canada. It’s a country that doesn’t have a military,” Duffy told Fox News. “So to think that they are going to go to war with Donald Trump and actually win that war with the US, I think it’s foolish on their part.”

A new round of U.S. tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods took effect on August 22 after trade negotiations broke down. Canada suspended the talks shortly before an August 21 deadline, with Prime Minister Mark Carney saying last-minute changes to the U.S. proposal were unacceptable.

Carney said Canada would respond with reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods “dollar for dollar.”

By Sabina Mammadli