The USand Canada are embroiled in an escalating fight over trade policy, and mounting tensions between the two close allies seemed evident in the readouts both countries released of a phone call on Tuesday between President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.The Trudeau office's readout of the call includeda number of specific details of the conversation."The Prime Minister and the President reaffirmed the importance of the mutually-beneficial Canada-US trade relationship. On the issue of softwood lumber, the Prime Minister refuted the baseless allegations by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the decision to impose unfair duties," Canada's readout began.The"unfair duties" to which Trudeau's office referred was Trump's decision Tuesday to impose a 20% tariff on Canadian softwood lumber imports. In justifying its decision,Washington argued that Canada unfairly subsidizes the sale of lumber imports to the US, adding that previous attempts at negotiation had not been successful.Continuing to reference the latest dispute over softwood lumber, Trudeau "stressed that the government of Canada will vigorously defend the interests of the Canadian softwood lumber industry, as we have successfully done in all past lumber disputes with the US," according to Canada's readout of the phone call.The two leaders also discussed thedispute over Canadian dairy that Trump has highlighted in recent days, accusing Canada of taking unfair advantage of US dairy farmers."The Prime Minister and the President also discussed Canada-US trade in dairy products, trade which heavily favours the US: Canada imports over $550 million of dairy products from the US, but exports just over $110 million to the US," Canada's readout of the call said."The Prime Minister reaffirmed that Canada upholds its international tradeobligations, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, under which the US continues to have duty-free and quota-free accessfor milk-protein substances ... and that Canada would continue to defend its interests," the statement continued, adding that "The Prime Minister and the President agreed to continue their dialogue on these important bilateral issues."The White House's readout of the same phone call was just four sentences."President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke today," the White House's readout began. "The two leaders discussed the dairy trade in Wisconsin, New York State, and various other places. They also discussed lumber coming into the United States. It was a very amicable call."SEE ALSO:Trump is taking aim at one of America's closest allies ' and he has bipartisan backingJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: A Yale history professor explains how governments can use disasters and tragedies to control society
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