Nothing should be off the table when it comes to Canada-U.S. trade, says former Trump ambassador

Donald Trump's former ambassador to the European Union says nothing should be off the table when it comes to Canada-U.S. trade discussions and that the U.S. president wants immediate change on his irritants like dairy and auto manufacturing.

"You cannot have fair and multilateral trade by someone saying that something is not up for grabs," Gordon Sondland said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday. "Everything is up for grabs. Everything."

Sondland referred to Canada's supply management system — a national policy framework meant to ensure predictable and stable prices by guaranteeing supply-managed dairy farmers a minimum price for their products. Trump has railed against the system for years.

During the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations in 2018, Canada fiercely protected supply management despite the Trump administration's protestations.

Trump's team views Canada's red line on supply management as a "very dismissive response," Sondland said, adding that the U.S. will pressure Canadian officials on all trade fronts "because everything is a blank sheet of paper."

The former ambassador's comments come as Trump either imposes or threatens tariffs on Canada, the European Union and soon the entire world.

"I think what President Trump is trying to do with all of these [trade] relationships is create some immediate action by essentially blowing things up in order to put them back together again," Sondland told host Rosemary Barton.

But Gordon Griffin, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, is critical of Trump for creating a confusing trade war through tariffs "that have no justification."

"It's impossible to discern what the president's goal is with these tariffs," Griffin said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live.

Over the past few months, Trump and his team have cycled through different reasons for U.S. tariffs, including fentanyl and illegal immigration, Canada's auto sector and banking regulations, certain digital policies and Canada's defence spending.

"If he was responding to some trade issue with Canada that we could identify with the tariffs, then we might be able to have a conversation," Griffin said. "But it's hard to solve for a solution when you don't know what the problem is."

Griffin said Canada's response to Trump's tariffs — which so far is a 25 per cent levy on some $60 billion worth of American goods — "has been very good" and "will ultimately make an impact on U.S. consumers and businesses."

After meeting with Trump trade representatives in Washington, D.C., Canadian officials say the U.S. president and his administration plan to impose tariffs by sector in countries around the world on April 2.

David Paterson, Ontario's representative in Washington, said in an interview on Power & Politics that countries that get along the best with the U.S. will be "first in line" to adjust or mitigate the tariffs.