US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday slammed Canada as trade negotiators prepare to review the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement this year.

Asked at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC, about Canada’s former trade chief suggesting time is on Canada’s side in the talks, Lutnick responded: “That is like the worst strategy I’ve ever heard. They suck. They — look, we are a $30 trillion economy, right?”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark “Carney has a problem with us; he gets on a plane and he goes to China,” Lutnick continued. “Does he think China’s… going to buy his stuff? China is an entirely export-driven economy. So what did he do? He came back and said, ‘Oh, we’ll take their electric cars.’ I mean, is this nuts?”

A Commerce Department spokesperson said in a statement to Semafor that Lutnick was “misquoted” when he made the “suck” comment, adding: “Secretary Lutnick, describing our unfair trade imbalance with Canada, explained how Canada sucks off of our $30T economy.”

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said recently he plans to reveal the US’ position on the USMCA on June 1, one month before officials must agree to extend the landmark trade deal. Nearly 40 senators from both parties urged Greer this week to “fully enforce the existing terms” to ensure “the joint review process reinforces, rather than undermines, the stability and opportunity that USMCA delivers to America’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.”

As of now, President Donald Trump thinks USMCA is “a bad deal,” Lutnick said. “It needs to be reconsidered and reimagined correctly.”

Trump signed the current iteration during his last administration. Steve Verheul, the former Canadian trade chief who predicted “pressures on the US are only going to increase,” helped draft it.

“There are parts of Mexico that are fundamental to us; there are parts of Canada, energy and other things, that are important to us,” Lutnick said Friday. “But the concept of taking an auto plant out of Ohio and Michigan and putting it in Mexico to break the union and to break our people is nuts.”