Scott Bessent Roasts Canada in Latest Tariff War Salvo: What Are They Gonna Do? Sic ‘Their Two Submarines’ on Us?

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent roasted Canada’s reciprocal tariffs against the United States when asked if he would be meeting with his Canadian counterpart at the G20 financial summit in Asheville, NC.

Bessent sat down with CNBC’s Sara Eisen for a preview of the financial talks taking place this week.

“I guess, markets wondering if we’re now in a tit-for-tat trade war with Canada,” Eisen said.

“Well, I don’t think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are,” Bessent quipped.

“They say they’re doing okay,” Eisen responded.

“What else are they going to say?” Bessent said, continuing:

You know, look, I think this is very unfortunate that Prime Minister [Mark] Carney has turned this into a political shouting match. I mean, we’re not at war with Canada. How are we going to be at war with Canada? What, they’re going to take their two submarines from the Edmonton Mall and sic ’em on us? That, you know, he came to power on an anti-American, anti-Trump agenda. He was 20-points behind in the polls, and then he started this. And it’s unfortunate that he’s not doing what’s best for the Canadian people, he’s doing what is best for the Liberal Party, what’s best for Mark Carney, and in the long run, the Canadian people are going to see through that.

Bessent added, “And you know, I will say that they were offered the best trade deal of any any country on the globe. And he chose to walk away from it at the last minute.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was involved with the talks, accused Canada of playing politics last week, saying, “We negotiated and Canada was going to have the best trade deal in the world. And what happened was that Canada walked away — we had a deal, we shook hands, the president announced it, right? And everybody was positive. Canada made the decision for political purposes. They wanted to walk away. This is politics only.”

Lutnick said that as soon as Canada’s October elections are over, “you’re going to see a plane full of Canadian negotiators flying down and going, ‘Come on, come on, we’ll give it to you before your election!'”

Carney said the breakdown in trade talks happened because “last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

Watch the clip above via CNBC’s Squawk On The Street.

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