United States President Donald Trump has said many times that the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada, but Pete Hoekstra , the U.S. ambassador to Canada, said what his boss is really saying is that “we’re open to offers; make your case.”

On Wednesday, Trump said he would not renew the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) , a trade deal that has been shielding a lot of Canadian exports from a large portion of U.S. tariffs.

But Hoekstra said Canada should look at this optimistically.

“With all the resources that you have … go into these negotiations very aggressively and say we know America has needs across the board and we are here to partner with America and fill those needs,” he said at the U.S.-Canada Summit in Toronto. “You maybe don’t like the way the president says it, but … what he’s saying is, We’re open to offers; make your case.’”

For example, Trump often says the U.S. doesn’t need cars from Canada, but Hoekstra said that’s because it can get them from Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

“But if Canada puts on their sales hat, they can make a very, very compelling case that if America needs a single car coming into the United States from somewhere else in the world, the best place to get that car from is Canada,” he said.

Some of those selling points could include the auto sector’s integrated system, similar labour forces, similar working and environmental standards and pay scales, he said.

Hoekstra also said the U.S. is waiting for Canada to respond in CUSMA negotiations.

“Once Canada clearly outlines its direction and what it wants from the negotiations, I think that we can do some great things,” he said.

The deadline to renew CUSMA is July 1, but it remains in place until at least 2036 with annual reviews if all three countries don’t agree to renew it by then, unless one country decides to quit it.

Mark Wiseman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., who also spoke at the event, said it’s important to continually remind Americans of the importance of Canada, but that is something “we are not always good at.”

He said Canada is the largest buyer of U.S. automobiles and is the No. 1 export market for more than 30 states. He also said Canadians on a per-capita basis buy 40 times more U.S. goods than Europeans, Chinese and Indians do.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Mark Carney has been looking to make new trade deals with different countries and find new business partners. However, Wiseman said that diversification won’t take place at the expense of Canada’s relationship with the U.S.

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Internal Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada needs to work on boosting its economy while accepting that Trump is going to continue to stick to his tariff policy.

“Our job is not to get destabilized by this,” he said at the event. “How can we ensure that we’re more resilient? How can we make the case to Americans — and this is something that I’m convinced in the end we’ll be successful at — that it’s a different circumstance than importing something on a boat from Asia?”

LeBlanc also said his conversations with senior U.S. officials have been cordial and constructive and he hopes to soon get to a situation where there’s more predictability and certainty even if Trump is not someone to “give eternal certainty.”

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com