Donald Trump has threatened to “immediately” hit Canada with a 100 percent tariff on all goods and products, should they make a deal with China.
“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,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday morning.
“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 U.S.A.”
The new “strategic partnership” between China and Canada was announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this month and promises to expand trade and mutual investment between the two nations and focus on areas such as agriculture, agri-food, energy, and finance.
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Following a meeting between two leaders, which marked the first visit by a Canadian leader to China in nearly a decade, Carney announced that Canada expects China to lower canola tariffs to 15 per cent by 1 March. Ottawa, in return, will allow 49,000 Chinese EVs into the Canadian market.
Trump initially had said that agreement was what Carney “should be doing and it’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal” before seemingly changing his mind Saturday.
It comes shortly after both Trump and Carney gave remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
In his own remarks Carney warned of “an era of great power rivalry” and suggested that the U.S.-led world order was over and was “not coming back.”
“If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate,” Carney said.
“We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is,” he continued. “We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.”
Though he did not mention Trump by name or the U.S. specifically, the speech was seen as a rebuke of the president’s policies, including his tariffs regime, his previous threats to force Canada to become the 51st state of the United States, and his efforts to acquire Greenland.
Days later, Trump wrote online that he was disinviting Canada from his “Board of Peace,” established to help the rebuilding and transition of power in Gaza.
“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”
Carney’s office said he planned to accept Trump’s invitation to the “Board of Peace,” Reuters reported last week.
The Independent has contacted the White House and Carney’s office for comment on the president’s tariff threats.
