Washington: US President Donald Trump insulted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and threatened to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Canada amid an escalating feud over Carney’s push to expand trade with China and broaden his country’s security partnerships.
The rocky relationship between Trump and his northern neighbour has worsened after a fortnight in which Carney visited Beijing and struck a deal to mutually cut tariffs, heralded a “new world order” and then traded barbs with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The trade deal – which Carney framed as a “strategic partnership” with Beijing – will open Canada to 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles with a low tariff of 6.1 per cent, while China is to reduce tariffs on Canadian canola seed to about 15 per cent.
Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping said they wanted to increase two-way investment and trade in clean and conventional energy, technology, agri-food, wood products, and other sectors.
In a social media post on Saturday morning (Sunday AEDT), Trump belittled Carney as Canada’s “governor” – an insult he previously only applied to Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau – and threatened to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Canadian products coming to the US.
“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken,” Trump said.
“China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life. If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the USA.”
Later, he added: “The last thing the World needs is to have China take over Canada. It’s NOT going to happen, or even come close to happening! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The threat is a complete departure from Trump’s position just a week ago, pre-Davos, when he said Carney was doing his job by pursuing a trade agreement with Beijing. “If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” Trump told reporters at the time.
The US president is also pursuing his own trade deal with China, which he hopes to progress or finalise during a planned visit to Beijing in April.
Trump’s most recent tariff threats have been especially mercurial. He announced tariffs on European allies for rebuffing his attempts to annex Greenland, then withdrew them days later at Davos, and backed off threats to take the Danish territory by force.
On January 12, he promised to impose 25 per cent tariffs on any country still doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which includes China, “effectively immediately” – but these have not yet been implemented.
In Davos, Carney declared the rules-based international order – which for decades has been helmed by the US – was fading, and called on middle powers such as Canada to forge new partnerships with like-minded countries.
Without naming Trump, Carney warned that hegemonic powers could not deploy economic coercion forever. “Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty. They’ll buy insurance, increase options in order to rebuild sovereignty,” he said.
Trump, speaking the next day, said Canada should be “grateful” to the US because it gets a lot of “freebies”.
“But they’re not,” he said. “I watched your prime minister yesterday, he wasn’t so grateful … Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
Carney later responded that Trump was wrong and said Canada “thrives because we are Canadian”.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via Twitter or email.
