Trump threatens Canada with 100 pc tariff over China trade deal

US President Donald Trump unleashed his tariff-weapon threat once again, this time against Canada, saying he would slap 100 per cent duty on all imports from the northern neighbour if it entered a trade arrangement with China.

In a post on Truth Social, the mercurial leader slammed the Canadian leadership led by Prime Minister Mark Carney saying if the latter thought of making his country a ‘drop off port’ for the Chinese to send goods and products into the US, he is “sorely mistaken”. He even called Carney as "Governor Carney", clearly provoking the northern neighbour.

'China will eat Canada alive'

Warning that “China will eat Canada alive,” Trump further wrote that Canadian businesses, social fabric and general way of life would be destroyed. He then issued his tariff threat, saying, “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.”

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The US president’s words come days after Carney’s four-day visit to China, when he reached a deal with the host nation to allow nearly 50,000 China-made electric vehicles (EVs) into his country at a low tariff rate in exchange of major cuts in Beijing’s levies canola seed and removal of tariffs on several other products.

Carney’s visit to China and his deal with the Xi Jinping leadership was bound to have repercussions in the US. While Ottawa seeks to lower its dependence on the US by agreeing on the pact with China under a fresh strategic partnership, the entry of Chinese EVs in Canada also dilutes in a way the Trump administration’s tough stance vis-à-vis Beijing.

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.” Carney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US president's threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the former's push to acquire Greenland strained the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance.

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Trump had commented while at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, this week that “Canada lives because of the United States.” Carney shot back that his nation can be an example that the world does not have to bend toward autocratic tendencies.

Trump later revoked his invitation to Carney to join his Board of Peace initiative that he is forming to try to resolve global conflicts.

US commerce secretary slams Canada

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was also critical of Carney’s China outreach saying it undermined Ottawa’s capacity to negotiate with Washington DC. Both Canada and the US are in hunt for a leverage before a review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement kicks off this year, Politico reported.

Carney has not yet reached a deal with Trump to reduce some of the tariffs that he has imposed on key sectors of the Canadian economy. But Canada has been protected by the heaviest impact of Trump's tariffs by the trilateral agreement.

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Speaking to Bloomberg at the WEF forum in Davos on Thursday (January 22), Lutnick said Canada is playing with rules that it “hasn’t really thought through”.

“They’ve sort of given a sort of a road map of saying, ‘So, I guess we should change the whole deal’,” he was quoted as saying.

When he was asked whether the Trump administration’s negotiating tactics might irk Europeans on the US, as they have Canadians, the commerce secretary accused Canada of thinking such “arrogant kind of thought”.

Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne did not agree to attach much importance to Lutnick’s comment, and told the media in Quebec City that every G7 country has its own “strategic path forward” vis-a-vis China, with an “eyes wide open” approach.

According to him, Canada is no different.

Disagreement within Canada

However, there were voices rising from Canada against entry of Chinese-made vehicles in that country. Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, urged the people of Canada to boycott Chinese-made vehicles in the wake of the agreement with Beijing.

“Boycott the Chinese EV vehicles. Support companies that are building vehicles here,” Ford said at a news conference at Queen’s Park, Toronto, on Wednesday (January 21), flanked by representatives from the automobile industry, BNN Bloomberg reported.

(With agency inputs)