Article content continued

Global affairs minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday Canada has had no formal notification of any additional measures being contemplated.

Meanwhile, Larry Kudlow, the President’s new economic adviser, was sent out Wednesday afternoon to brief the press on the G7 trip. As is his style, Kudlow tried to pacify the agitation rather than excite it.

He said Trump will meet one-on-one with both Trudeau and French president Emmanuel Macron in Québec.

Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images

Kudlow pointed out that the U.S. economy is the fastest growing among the industrialized nations, pushing through 3-per-cent growth — a feat he attributed to Trump’s lower taxes and regulatory rollback. He suggested that the President’s trade “reforms” would “open new avenues of growth” — a position putting him at odds with Republicans like Bob Corker, the senator from Tennessee, whose state is home to foreign and domestic auto plants and who has condemned the tariffs as “a dangerous course that should be abandoned.”

Ludlow said Trump’s attempts to fix the world trading system are about “fairness and reciprocity.”

“The policies are working and we hope our friends at the G7 will take notice,” he said. And he downplayed the prospect that Charlevoix will descend into the “G6 plus 1,” as alliances with major allies unravel.

“I regard it like a family quarrel,” he said. “I believe it can be worked out.”

Kudlow presented the picture of a president who views tariffs as a cudgel that will force reluctant trading partners to open up their economies.