Former U.S. ambassador to Canada warns of the challenges for Congress to scrap tariffs

Ambassador David Cohen, nice to see you again. It's great to see you, Rosemary, and I appreciate your sharing your air with me. We are. Ambassadors, you know, we've been hearing from a lot of Democrats, newly elected representatives, but others too, that are saying that ending the tariff policies, the Trump tariff policies, is a priority for them when it comes to Canada. How do you expect that is going to play out from Democrats on that front? So what we're hearing is not a surprise. In the expectation setting game, however, and I'm not saying that if I were a member of Congress, I wouldn't be saying the same thing, but Canada and Canadians need to understand just how limited the role is that Congress has in being able to roll back tariffs and trade policy. These are fairly uniquely matters of executive authority. Fairly uniquely are matters within the discretion of the president of the United States, at least under current law, where Congress has delegated, for example, the setting of tariffs to the president. They sort of give up their authority to set tariffs. So you know the complexities. It's going to require legislation. To be able to overrule President Trump's tariff policies. And you know the hurdles of that. In the Senate, you need 60 votes. The 56 votes that the Democrats have are not gonna be enough. You need 60 votes to terminate debate. And there might be four Republicans who would vote to terminate debate on this. But then if it passes, it has to pass in the House, it has to pass in the Senate. And if the president vetoes it, you need a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate to pass the legislation. And I think that is going to be a very tough haul. On Saturday, the prime minister did say that he would not accept a deal that was not consistent with a viable auto sector for Canada. Do you think that that is going to be a challenge? First of all, I think Prime Minister Carney has said much the same beforehand. I think he's been very consistent that any deal he reaches with the United States has to be good for Canadians. Thank And he and Minister LeBlanc have both talked about protecting the auto sector as being one of the central tenets of any deal that has to take place between the United States and Canada. So I think the answer to that, would it be challenging? you. Yeah, I think it'll be challenging. But is it doable? I think it is doable. And I'll, I mean, by the way, I'm not involved in these negotiations. I'm not talking to Prime Minister Carney. I'm not speaking for anyone. But I'm just saying, hypothetically speaking, a deal that is viable, that is viable for the auto sector could still have tariffs in it. They could be lower. Then they could be lower than 50 percent. They could even be lower than 25 percent. And they can contain a significant USMCA exception or waiver and even a waiver that goes beyond that, tied to the interconnected nature of the automobile supply chain, based on the percentage of parts in the Canadian produced automobiles that come from the United States or that touch the United States during the course of production. So you could still have a tariff with a headline, but there could be such broad exemptions. That it would not jeopardize the viability of the Canadian automobile sector. You are going to join the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, tomorrow, to answer questions about the Canada-U.S. relationship. Correct. What will be your message there in terms of how quickly things need to get fixed? What will So I'll preview my message, you which may get me in trouble with the committee, but that's okay. I always start from the proposition about how important I think very this relationship is. If you were to go and parse my words during much. my almost four years as U.S. Ambassador to Canada, the single sentence that I probably issued, that I probably may have stated more than any other Was that the United States has no better friend, no better partner, and no better ally than Canada. And I start from that proposition. Thank Yes, that relationship is challenged. Yes, it's been damaged. There's no doubt about that. But is it a relationship that can be brought back? I think the answer to that is yes. And I think there are examples in history where that has occurred. you. And so what do I think it'll take to do that? Well, I think it'll take a few things. First of all, it will take an initial and ongoing demonstration of a little bit of humility by the United States. We can't always behave like we're the 800-pound gorilla, and because what we say is what has to be. So we have to have a little bit of humility, which I think has been more typical of our relationship. It certainly was typical of the relationship under President Biden, under both President Bush's, under President Obama, and under President Clinton. So we need, we're going to need to demonstrate some humility. I have said, And I never thought this would be controversial, but it's generated a little bit of controversy. I have said that I think the United States owes Canada an apology. But an apology alone is not going to be enough. There's going to have to be a demonstrated commitment. To a different policy, we're going to have to rebuild the trust that existed at one point. And when Prime Minister Carney says and he says it in many different ways, but when he says the the relationship with the United States, as we know it, is dead or is or is there is never going to be the same. I think the key words there are the relationship as we as we know it. It's not going to be the same. And I think, and by the way, I'm not all that upset about that, because I think over decades, I think that Canada may have been, this isn't a criticism, because it was happening because it was so comfortable, but I think Canada may have been a little careless. In building and relying on the relationship with the United States to such a great extent. But even if you could lessen dependency on the United States by a few percentage points, I think that would be healthy for Canada. I think that would be good. I think it would be good for the relationship. Ambassador David Cohen, thank you so much for making the time. Nice to see you again. Rosemary, thanks for having me on. I'm waiting for you to invite me back where we can both celebrate. The trade agreement, a renewal of CUSMA and and and begin to look forward to how this great relationship is going to be rebuilt and be even stronger and better in the future. Thank you, sir.