Canada's tiny bureaucratic tweak could be a huge blow to U.S. trade

Is Canada ready to move on from America?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday added a single word to the position of "minister of international trade," renaming it the "minister of international trade diversification." Adding "diversification" might seem like a small change — but it could signal a massive blow to the U.S.-Canada relationship, The Toronto Star suggests.

America is easily Canada's biggest trading partner, accounting for $207 billion of the country's $389 billion in imports each year. That relationship has become complicated, however, after President Trump began announcing a series of tariffs on America's northern neighbor in March. Canada, along with the EU, China, and other tariff targets, has retaliated with its own tariffs on the U.S. Trudeau went so far as to blast Trump's "totally unacceptable" charges in a particularly harsh press conference on May 31.

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And Wednesday's change wasn't just a hint. Trudeau adviser Gerald Butts tweeted exactly what "diversification" really meant: "We need to get Canadian resources to markets other than the United States."

Talk about stating the obvious.