Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared this Monday that he was willing to talk again with US President Donald Trump, after Washington, exasperated by an advertisement described as a “hostile act”, increased customs duties on Canadian products by 10%.
However, that prospect seemed unlikely in the short term. The Canadian leader said he had no contact with the American billionaire in Kuala Lumpur, where they were both on Monday. And the latter was adamant in an interview at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit on Wednesday in South Korea. “I don’t want to meet him. I won’t see him for a long time,” he told reporters.
A “twisted blow”
Donald Trump, who broke off trade relations with Canada, announced on Saturday the addition of an additional 10% to already affected imports. This is an advertising campaign carried out by the Canadian province of Ontario (central-eastern), broadcast on Friday night during the first game of the final of the North American baseball championship.
The ad used excerpts from a speech by Ronald Reagan, in which the former US president warned of the consequences of high tariffs for the US economy. To Washington’s ire, the province of Ontario declared it would remove the offending ad so negotiations could resume, but not before it was broadcast Saturday night during the second game of the baseball showdown.
The American president denounced on his Truth Social platform a “serious distortion of the facts”, a “hostile act” and a “twisted movement” by Canada. The Ronald Reagan Foundation, for its part, accused the campaign of and said it was examining “legal options.”
A Xi-Carney meeting on Wednesday
Before this announcement was aired, a meeting between Mark Carney and Donald Trump was scheduled at the APEC summit. This new episode is a hard blow for Canada at a time when a trade agreement between the two countries – covering steel, aluminum and energy – seemed to be concluding, according to the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail.
Since returning to the White House in January, the Republican president has imposed surcharges on imports from around the world, including his key allies. He negotiated – and obtained – with several countries – bilateral agreements. In addition, it decided to apply customs duties to certain specific products (steel and aluminum, in particular).
Canada is the United States’ second largest trading partner and a major supplier of steel and aluminum to American companies, including auto manufacturing. Before Saturday’s announcement, some Canadian imports were subject to maximum customs duties of 25% (10% for energy and potash). But all goods that fall within the framework of the free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico (CUSMA) are exempt.
These surcharges have hit Ottawa hard, causing job losses and putting pressure on businesses. Speaking on Friday before also flying to Asia, Mark Carney called bilateral discussions showing “progress.” But “we cannot control US trade policy,” he said, underlining his desire to deepen trade with other countries.
In this sense, he indicated on Monday that he had agreed to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Apec summit to discuss “the bilateral trade relationship as well as the evolution of the global system.”
Source: BFM TV
