Speaking to reporters in Shannon, Ireland, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke about the upcoming G7 meeting in Canada.
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00:00Can I ask you about the Canada trip coming up?
00:02The President has taunted, if you will,
00:05Canada calling it the 51st state,
00:07calling Prime Minister Trudeau governor.
00:08Well, he said it should become the 51st state
00:10from an economic standpoint.
00:11He says if they became the 51st state,
00:13we wouldn't have to worry about the border
00:15and fentanyl coming across,
00:16because now we would be able to manage that.
00:18He's made an argument that it's their interest to do so.
00:20Obviously, the Canadians don't agree, apparently.
00:22Do you agree with that?
00:23Are you going to discuss that?
00:25Well, that's not what we're going to discuss at the G7,
00:27and that's not what we're going to be discussing
00:29at the G7 this year.
00:30So they're the host nation,
00:32and we have a lot of other things we work on together.
00:36We defend North America through NORAD
00:38and the airspace of our continent together,
00:41not to mention the issues of Ukraine and other commonalities.
00:44So we're going to be focused in the G7 on all of those things.
00:47That's what the meeting is about.
00:48It is not a meeting about how we're going to take over Canada.
00:51Are you concerned at all about the reception
00:54that you might be getting, particularly at the event?
00:56I don't know. Should I be?
00:57What do you know that I don't know?
00:58They're unhappy.
00:59I don't know.
01:00You've got terrorists the last 12 hours.
01:02You've just seen this escalating trade war.
01:04Not just with Canada, but with the exception of Japan,
01:09all the other members of the G7.
01:12Yeah. So what's your point?
01:14Are you worried about alienating the Canadians
01:16so that they wouldn't work with the United States?
01:18Yeah, I mean, they've invited us to come.
01:20We intend to go.
01:21The alternative is to not go.
01:22I think that would actually make things worse, not better.
01:24So it's a G7 summit.
01:27The alternative could be not to have tariffs
01:29or not to have the language of the president.
01:30No, those are policy decisions.
01:32And so at the end of the day,
01:33the president's made those decisions.
01:34He's explained why.
01:35It's not just against Canada.
01:37It's not just against Mexico.
01:38It's not just against G7 countries.
01:40He's imposed steel and aluminum tariffs now
01:42on virtually the entire world.
01:43And the reason why is not to punish those countries.
01:46It's because he has outlined the need
01:47to develop a domestic capability.
01:49If you don't have steel and aluminum,
01:51you can't build warships.
01:52You can't build airplanes.
01:54You're not an industrial economy.
01:55There are things we have to be able to protect,
01:57and there's a lot of unfair trade practices.
01:59A lot of countries out there
02:00who subsidize their industries
02:02so that they can gain global market share.
02:05So they subsidize the industries.
02:07They're operating at a loss.
02:08Meanwhile, our industries are trying to compete fairly,
02:10and that's why you don't have steel plants,
02:12and that's why you can't produce the aluminum.
02:14And that really threatens
02:15our national security in the long term.
02:17So these are national security concerns
02:18when it comes to steel and aluminum
02:20and some of these other products.
02:21But ultimately, the president feels strongly,
02:23and I personally agree,
02:24that we have made some decisions
02:26when it comes to trade policies
02:28that have led to the deindustrialization of America
02:30and have left us deeply vulnerable
02:32to any sort of interruptions in global supplies
02:36and or it being used to extort us,
02:38not to mention our inability to produce things
02:40that we need for our own economy
02:41and for our own defense.
02:43So that's what those policies are about.
02:44Every country in the world, we expect,
02:46will act in their national interest.
02:48The United States forgot that.
02:49President Trump is reminding us of that
02:51and getting us back to that.
02:52And I think it is quite possible
02:54that we could do these things
02:56and at the same time deal in a constructive way
02:59with our allies and friends and partners
03:01on all the other issues that we work together on.
03:04And that's what I expect out of the G7 in Canada.