Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday said it's “obvious” Ottawa is not in free-trade talks with Beijing, acknowledging that any move in that direction would jeopardize Canada’s trade relationship with Washington.
"The president is a strong negotiator,” Carney said when asked to respond to Donald Trump’s latest volley of attacks, reprising the nickname “Governor” previously used to mock Justin Trudeau. “Some of these comments and positioning should be viewed in the broader context of that."
Carney said Washington would know if a free trade deal were on the table with China, pointing to a rule under the North American trade deal that requires parties to give such notice — or risk its potential termination, which Canada doesn’t want.
Trade war tensions between Canada and the United States intensified over the weekend, a week after Carney met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and announced a landmark “new strategic partnership” with China to reset years of frosty bilateral relations.
China is Canada’s second largest trading partner after the United States.
After the meeting with Xi, Canada announced it would slash its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, originally adopted in fall 2024 to match the U.S. levy. In exchange, Beijing will lift retaliatory tariffs on Canadian canola seeds and meal.
Trump’s initial reaction to Carney’s dealmaking with Xi was congenial. “If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” Trump said Jan. 16.
Then four days later, the Canada leader took the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to deliver a widely lauded speech, calling for the creation of a like-minded “new world order” to buck the “rupture” in an era of “great power rivalry.”
Trump’s tone on Carney’s deal with China shifted after Davos.
Carney’s cerebral address, lamented economic coercion by the world’s “hegemons and hyperscalers” — a nod to the U.S. and China, which he did not name — overshadowing a rambling speech by Trump the next day, which he used to attack America’s allies.
Trump has since threatened to slap a 100 percent tariff on Canadian imports should Canada follow through on a trade deal with China — which Carney and senior Cabinet ministers have repeatedly said is not under consideration and “never” will be.
Canadian Cabinet ministers “have made it clear to their counterparts that that's the case,” Carney said Monday, of the damage control his team is doing stateside.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used ABC's "This Week" on Sunday to echo the “possibility of a 100 percent tariff” if Canada pursues an FTA with China.
Carney told reporters he understands the U.S. perspective, explaining that a provision under Article 32.10 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement requires parties to give notice if they launch FTA negotiations with a “nonmarket economy.”
That term is open to interpretation, he said. “That's in the eye of the beholder,” Carney said. “Who defines it, but it's a definition of any of the other parties who see somebody as a nonmarket economy.”
China is one of a dozen countries the U.S. considers a nonmarket economy, overlapping with Canada’s own shortlist.
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are due to begin a mandatory review of the USMCA this year.
from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/iM23pey
https://ift.tt/TyJYkQr
0 Comments