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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated on Tuesday that he spoke with United States President Donald Trump and told him he stood by his remarks in his Davos speech, while also informing him that Canada plans to diversify away from the United States through a dozen new trade agreements.
Carney rejected the claim made by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Fox News, which suggested the Prime Minister had aggressively walked back his World Economic Forum comments during a phone call with Trump on Monday.
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'To be absolutely clear, and I told the President as much, what I said in Davos I meant,' Carney told reporters upon arriving at a cabinet meeting in Ottawa.
'Canada was the first country to understand the shift in U.S. trade policy that he initiated, and we are responding to that.'
Last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Carney criticized economic coercion by major powers against smaller nations without mentioning Trump by name. The Prime Minister received widespread praise and attention for his comments, overshadowing the American leader at the gathering.
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Aranceles y acuerdos comerciales
Trump threatened this past weekend to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if the U.S. northern neighbor moved forward with a trade deal with Beijing, although Carney has stated that Canada has no interest in negotiating a comprehensive trade agreement with China.
Carney said that Trump called him.
'I explained our agreement with China. I explained what we are doing: 12 new agreements, four continents, in six months,' Carney commented. 'He was impressed.'
Trump’s threat came amid an escalation of rhetoric with Carney. The Republican President's push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance, alarming Canada, which shares a 3,000-kilometer (1,864-mile) maritime border with the Arctic island. Trump has also previously spoken about turning Canada into the 51st state of the United States.
Carney noted that his recent agreement with China simply reduces tariffs that were recently imposed in some sectors. The Prime Minister plans to travel to India, Australia, and other countries in an effort to diversify trade and move away from dependence on the United States, which absorbs more than 75% of Canada's exports.
The renewal of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is scheduled for this year. Carney has set a goal for Canada to double its non-U.S. exports over the next decade.
En la mesa o en el menú
Carney has emerged as a spokesperson for a movement to unite countries and counter the United States under the Trump regime. In his Davos speech, delivered before the Republican's address, Carney said: 'Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.'
The Canadian Prime Minister said that he also spoke with Trump about Ukraine, Venezuela, and Arctic security during their phone call.
Bessent confirmed that Carney spoke with Trump on Monday. The Treasury Secretary told Fox News that Carney 'aggressively walked back some of the unfortunate comments he made in Davos.'
'Of course, Canada is dependent on the United States,' Bessent said. 'There is much more north-south trade than there could ever be east-west trade.'
Bessent said that Canada is linked to the United States and that Carney should stop trying to 'push his own globalist agenda.'
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, compared Canada's recent trade deal with China to an agreement Trump made with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea last summer, in which the U.S. reduced some tariffs on China while Beijing took action to allow rare earth exports and lift a pause on U.S. soybean purchases.
Trump's push to acquire Greenland followed repeated insistence to Canada regarding its sovereignty, and he has suggested it too be absorbed by the United States. Last week, he posted an altered image on social media showing a map of the U.S. that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland, and Cuba as part of his territory.
[Publicidad]