TORONTO (AP) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday he told U.S. President Donald Trump he meant what he said in his Davos speech and that Canada plans to diversify away from the United States with 12 new trade deals.
Carney rolled his eyes and rejected the US Treasury secretary. Scott Bessent’s In a phone call with President Trump on Monday, he insisted on Fox News that he actively retracted his remarks at the World Economic Forum.
“Let me be absolutely clear, when I said this to the president, I meant what I said at Davos,” Carney told reporters as he arrived for a cabinet meeting in the capital, Ottawa.
“Canada was the first country to understand the changes in U.S. trade policy that he initiated, and we are responding to them.”
Carney spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. condemned economic coercion; A large country attacked a small country without mentioning Trump by name. The Prime Minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks at the rally that praised Trump.
“The world has changed, Washington has changed, and there is very little that is normal in America today. That is the truth,” Carney told Congress in French on Tuesday.
Tariffs and trade agreements
President Trump threatened this past weekend: impose 100% customs duty If America’s northern neighbor were to accept imports from Canada, trade agreement But Carney said Canada has no interest in negotiating a comprehensive agreement. Trade agreement with Beijing.
Carney said President Trump called him and they spoke for about 30 minutes.
“I explained to him the deal with China, and I explained what we were doing: 12 new deals on four continents in six months,” Carney said. “He was impressed.”
Trump’s threat comes amid an escalating war of words with Carney. republican president Promote acquisition of Greenland I was nervous NATO allianceconcerned about Canada, with whom they share 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) of land. Border with Greenland At the North Pole. President Trump has also previously talked about the creation of Canada. 51st state.
Secretary Carney said the recent agreement with China only reduces tariffs recently imposed on some sectors. The prime minister is scheduled to visit India, Australia and other countries in an effort to diversify Canada’s trade away from dependence on the United States, which accounts for more than 75 per cent of Canada’s exports.
of United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement It is scheduled to be renewed this year. Prime Minister Carney has set a goal for Canada to double its exports outside the United States over the next 10 years.
on the table or on the menu
Mr. Carney has emerged as a spokesperson for a movement that brings countries together to counter the Trump-era United States. “The middle powers have to act together, because if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” Carney said in a speech at Davos ahead of Trump.
Secretary Carney said he also spoke with President Trump about Ukraine, Venezuela and Arctic security.
Bessent said Carney met with Trump on Monday. The Treasury secretary told Fox News that Mr. Carney had been “very aggressive in retracting some of the unfortunate statements he made in Davos.”
“Of course, Canada is dependent on the United States,” Bessent said. “There is far more north-south trade than east-west trade.”
Bessent said Canada is tied to the United States and that Carney should stop “pushing his own globalist agenda.”
Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s Minister of Canada-U.S. Trade, spoke about the recent trade agreement between Canada and China. Agreement signed by President Trump Last summer, he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, and while the United States lowered some tariffs on China, the Chinese government moved to allow the export of rare earths and lift a suspension on the purchase of American soybeans.
President Trump’s push to acquire Greenland came after he repeatedly provoked Canada over its sovereignty and suggested Greenland would also be absorbed into the United States. Last week, he posted a doctored image on social media showing a map of the United States that includes Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.