WASHINGTON—Canada has been taking advantage of the niceness of the United States, President Donald Trump’s spokesperson said Monday.

“We’ve been very nice to Canada for many years, and they’ve taken advantage of that. Particularly advantage of our farmers,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said when asked to address the retaliatory tariffs Canada imposed on the U.S. products on Sunday.

Canada is the top destination for U.S. agricultural exports, according to Trump administration data, buying $20.5 billion (U.S.) in 2017. And American farmers are generally supportive of the North American Free Trade Agreement, under which U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico have quadrupled.

But Trump has recently pointed to Canada’s dairy protectionism, which involves import quotas and high tariffs, as evidence that Canada is generally treating the U.S. unfairly on agriculture.

The White House has repeatedly denounced Canada in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s criticism of Trump’s 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian steel and 10-per-cent tariff on Canadian aluminum.

Trudeau responded to those tariffs with tariffs on 235 U.S. products, from steel bars to ketchup to sleeping bags. The list was designed to apply pressure to Trump and fellow Republicans by hurting companies in conservative states.

“Escalating tariffs against the United States does nothing to help Canada and it only hurts American workers,” Sanders said. “The president is working to fix the broken system, and he’s going to continue pushing for that.”

Asked if Trump is winning this trade battle, given the retaliation from Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union, Sanders said: “Again, the president is focused not on the short term but on the long term. And he wants to make sure that we’re doing things that help protect American workers and protect American industry, and he is going to keep pushing to make sure we have good trade deals.”

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