JD Vance calls out Canada over China trade: ‘You have to be fair to American workers’

WASHINGTON, DC: Vice President JD Vance sharply warned Canada in a speech that its position as the United States' "friend" does not give it a right to impose more stringent trade rules on the US than China.

"One of the things the president's trying to do is just make things more fair for the American worker," Vance said during a visit to Kansas City, Missouri, insisting that the tariffs the Americans are imposing on Canada are justified, despite the friendly relationship between the two countries.

JD Vance claims Canada has imposed 'extraordinary trade restrictions' on American workers

Vance argued Canada has singled out American workers for treatment it doesn't apply elsewhere.

"We got to ask ourselves, is Canada applying restrictions on Kansas City workers or Missouri workers or Kansas workers that it's not applying to anybody else," he said.

"The unfortunate answer is, despite the fact that we all love Canada, it's obviously a friendly country in a lot of ways, their government has imposed extraordinary trade restrictions on American workers all across our country for many years," the vice president claimed. 

Vance pointed to agriculture as an example of the imbalance he claims Canada has perpetuated.

"If you buy a pound of butter from Canada, we're not applying any tariffs on it, or at least we weren't. But if we actually send agricultural products into Canada, sometimes our farmers are paying 200%, 300%," he said, noting that "the same basic principles" apply to a variety of manufactured goods.

Vance has leveled similar arguments in recent weeks about Maine dairy exports, which are hit with tariffs as high as 250% under Canada's supply management system, while accusing Ottawa of letting Chinese products flow more freely through the North American market.

The China comparison at the center of JD Vance's argument

The core of Vance’s argument was a comparison to the way that Canada handles products from China.

"At the same exact time, while Canada is imposing a whole host of tariffs on our workers and a whole host of export and import controls on American workers, they're letting products come in from the People's Republic of China with nothing like that level of restriction," he said.

Vance has used similarly pointed language in open letters to colleagues, accusing Canada in the past of being a “backdoor” for Chinese products to enter the North American market and evade US tariffs on Beijing.

Vance characterized the administration’s position as corrective rather than punitive.

"What the president is doing here, it's not in an effort to hurt anybody, certainly not in the United States, not even in Canada. We're trying to make things more fair," he said.

"What we're saying to the Canadian government is, if you want access to American markets, you have to be fair to American workers. This is going to lead to a place that's much better for American workers,” the vice president claimed. 

The comments come as relations between Washington and Ottawa have been deadlocked for months, with trade talks between the two countries lurching toward a stalemate in recent weeks, despite both sides expressing a willingness to negotiate a new deal.