Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China.
He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 per cent tariff on goods imported from Canada if it went ahead with a trade deal with China.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump suggests otherwise, posting “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”.
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico, there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with non-market economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other non-market economy,” Carney said.
“What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 per cent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium.
China had responded by imposing 100 per cent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 per cent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 per cent, growing to about 70,000 over five years.
He noted there was no cap before 2024.
He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about three per cent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian car industry within three years.
Trump posted a video on Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian car industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said 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”.
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the US,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told US broadcaster ABC.
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