The trade war between Canada and the USA doesn't seem like it's going to end any time soon, with Brad Sester, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations believing the main issue is President Trump has a vendetta.
The tariff tit for tat between the USA and Canada is ongoing, after the Commonwealth nation responded to US tariffs with some tariffs of their own.
This hasn't gone down well with President Trump, but many people have been wondering what brought on the decision to rock the Canadian boat in the first place.
Trade had been going back and forth across the border all the time, and most people were happy with it, so what went wrong?
When appearing on The Pat Kenny Show, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Brad Sester, shared some insight into what's been going on.
He said: "The bottom line is Canada was selling us [The USA] a lot of oil, oil that our Midwestern refiners need. And they were selling it to us at a discount because they didn't have pipelines to take it to the coast.
"That's the kind of deal Donald J Trump should like. We're getting the oil safely, securely and at a discount. Canada was the largest market for our manufactured exports and it is certainly one of the few markets for our manufacturers where we have a surplus in manufacturing.
"So if you're Donald Trump, you're getting the oil at a discount [and] you want to revive America's manufacturing, running a manufacturing surplus with Canada. This is a personal vendetta. It is not driven by economics."
But what has caused this supposed "vendetta" against Canada? Well, it could be because Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, won't "bend the knee" to the US President.
Mr Sester continued: "Trudeau, a liberal, rubbed Donald Trump the wrong way. Carney rubs Donald Trump the wrong way.
"He's also from the liberal side of this political spectrum because he's a bit too academic, a bit too much of a professor, a bit too good at articulating some of the difficulties and contradictions in Donald Trump's agenda.
"He got real upset when Canada and Carney, (and Carney won the election on this), did not bend the knee.
"They responded to US tariffs with some tariffs of their own, and in Trump's worldview, you were supposed to take our tariffs and reduce your tariffs.
"That was what was needed to equalise trade after a long period of unfair trade. And, you know, first of all, the trade with Canada wasn't actually unfair.
"It was under an agreement that Trump in his first term had negotiated and that most Americans thought was working just fine."
"But when Carney and some of the provinces retaliated, that sort of stuck in Trump's throat."
The US government announced 50% tariffs on a wide variety of Canadian goods, but were then met with $20 billion retaliatory tariffs which are due to come into effect on September 8.
Main image: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Picture by: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP
