Correction Notice
| Embassy of the United States of America • 490 Sussex Drive • Ottawa |
For Immediate Release
Correction for the Record
It has been reported that, during an exchange at the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters annual National Manufacturing Conference, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said, “the future of Canada-U.S. trade talks depends on how Canada’s review of its decision to buy U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets turns out.” As video of the interaction clearly shows, Ambassador Hoekstra did not make this statement.
Here is what Ambassador Hoekstra actually said:
“Well, on a number of these issues, we’re actually waiting to see exactly where the Canadian government is going to come out on this. Okay. We have, like I said, on the F-35, we’ve got all kinds of people and companies that are involved. You know, from an economic standpoint and a military cooperation standpoint, the F-35 has been a phenomenal success. It’s not an American plane. It’s an international plane. We put together a consortium, American-led consortium, you know, twenty years ago. Canada was one of the first to sign on. You know, we share technology across borders so that, you know — I think one of the features that I saw on one of your news networks talked about, I think, a company out of Nova Scotia. And the only thing that they could show you was the box that the parts were shipped in. Because, it’s kind of like, well ‘no, this is classified information or materials’ and it’s kind of like ‘yeah because it’s high tech.’ Well, that’s technology that we shared across the border — that you’ve got a company, you’ve got companies in Canada that are learning and developing and probably contributed to the development of that technology that you can use on future products and future efforts. And, you know, you got all these people making these planes. We’ve built a thousand of them already. We’ve got more than 2,000 on back order. And so, it’s a great example of good coordination. But, you know, Canada’s going through a review of their defense industry.”
Watch the full video of Ambassador Hoekstra’s appearance at the conference via CPAC here.
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U.S. Embassy Ottawa