Trump threatens Canada with 100% tariff over China trade deal

WASHINGTON (AP):

United States President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 100 per cent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with its China trade deal, intensifying a feud with Prime Minister Mark Carney, a rising voice in the West’s pushback to Trump’s new world order.

Trump said in a social media post that if 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”.

It was unclear when Trump might impose the threatened tariff. He said in the post it would happen “immediately” if Canada made a deal with China, which Carney did a week earlier, drawing initial praise from the president.

The White House did not offer any additional details.

While Trump has waged a trade war over the past year, Canada forged ahead with its own deal to lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in return for lower import taxes on Canadian farm products. At the time, Trump said that agreement was what Carney “should be doing and it’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal.”

Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister responsible for trade with the United States, said Canada and China had resolved “several important trade issues” but there was no pursuit of a free-trade agreement.

Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance. Trump had commented while 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. “Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian,” he said.

Trump later revoked his invitation to Carney to join the president’s “Board of Peace” that he is forming to try to resolve global conflicts.

Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.

In his message Saturday, Trump continued his provocations by calling Canada’s leader “Governor Carney”. Trump had used the same nickname for Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, and his first use of it toward Carney was the latest mark of their soured relationship.