“Willing to talk to Trump, but…”: 2 conditions for the New Canadian Prime Minister to negotiate with us | World News
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that the era of deep economic, security and military relations between his country and the United States is “end” after U.S. President Donald Trump announced steep auto tariffs starting next month.
Trump has raised tariffs on imported cars and parts to 25%, and said the reciprocal tariff system, which will take effect on April 2, will be “leniency”. The tariffs on vehicles he plans to import into Washington will take effect next week and have a potential devastating impact on the Canadian auto industry.
Trump’s latest tariff-related announcement prompted Carney to stop his campaign ahead of Canada’s April 28 election to return to Ottawa to meet members to develop plans in the trade war with Washington.
The Canadian Prime Minister called Trump’s automatic tariffs “unreasonable” and he violated the existing trade agreement between the two countries. He also warned Canadians that Trump has permanently changed relations with the United States and will not “look back” regardless of future trade agreements.
“Our old relationship with the United States is over based on deepening economic and tight integration of security and military cooperation,” Carney said, who said Canada will retaliate against automatic tariffs.
“Our reaction to these latest tariffs is to fight, protect and build,” Carney said. He further said: “We will fight the U.S. tariffs with our own retaliatory trade actions, which will have the greatest impact on the U.S. and have the least impact here in Canada.”
Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister on March 14. He said Thursday that the White House has reached out to arrange a phone call and he hopes to talk to Trump on “the second or two.”
Carney also said that despite his willingness to talk to Trump, he would not engage in substantive trade talks with Washington until the president showed “respect”, especially by ending his repeated threats of annexation.
“For me, there are two conditions, not necessarily a phone call, but a negotiation with the United States. First, respecting our sovereignty as a country … obviously big for him,” Carney said. “There must be a comprehensive discussion between the two of us, including about our economy and security.”
(with proxy input)
