Trump's Ambassador Names One Thing America Needs From Canada

TORONTO — One day after President Donald Trump declared the United States doesn't need anything from Canada, his ambassador in Ottawa offered a notable exception: potash.

Canada is the world’s top exporter of the essential fertilizer used to maximize crop production — and it’s one commodity U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said the United States needs as the fate of free trade between the two countries is under threat.

“When the president says we don't need this from Canada, or there's nothing we need. America has a tremendous amount of things where we have a need,” he told a Toronto business audience at the US-Canada Summit on Thursday. “We need potash.”

Canada is top exporter of potash to the world, accounting for nearly 40 percent of global exports. The U.S. buys 53 percent of Canada’s potash exports. Russia is another major exporter.

Trade talks appear to be on shaky ground, with Trump casting doubt over the long-term future of North American free trade, telling reporters Wednesday that he's not looking to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

“We don't need anything that Canada has, we don’t need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “They just have to treat us better. With Mexico or Canada, we have trade deficits. We should have surpluses with them.”

The tactic mirrors Trump’s approach during his first administration when he threatened to terminate the North American free trade deal and bail from renegotiations — but then didn’t.

Trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. appear to be at a standstill as a deadline to initiate the trilateral USMCA joint review comes up July 1.

While Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he made “a number of specific proposals” to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last week in Washington, Hoekstra said Thursday that the Trump administration is still waiting for Canada to put an offer on the table.

“We’re waiting for Canada to respond, but once Canada clearly outlines its direction and what it wants in the negotiations, I think that we can do some great things together,” Hoekstra said — though it’s unclear how long the ambassador will be around to see relations change.

Hoekstra, who previously served as American ambassador to the Netherlands and former chair of the House intelligence committee, is reportedly being floated as a candidate for director of national intelligence.

The American diplomat hasn't won over many Canadians during his tenure in Ottawa, known for his unapologetic, combative and partisan style of diplomacy — which is fair, according to Hoekstra’s Canadian counterpart.

“‘America First,’ which is clearly the positioning of the United States, doesn't mean America alone,” said Mark Wiseman, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, who spoke immediately after Hoekstra on a separate panel at the same summit.

“We need to continually remind Americans of the importance of Canada to the United States,” he said. “We're not good at that always.”