But senior members of his cabinet were concerned. U.S. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said Canada will regret the decision to partner with Beijing and allow Chinese EVs into its market. “I love my friends in Canada, but they will live to regret the day they let the Chinese Communist Party flood the market with their EVs!” Duffy said in a Jan. 17 post on X.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC on Jan. 16 that the deal is “problematic for Canada,” and that Washington had imposed tariffs to protect autoworkers. He said that while Canada made the deal to bring relief to agricultural producers, in the “long run, they’re not going to like having made that deal.”
Canada first imposed 100 percent tariffs on Chinese EVs, along with levies on steel and aluminum, in 2024, in lockstep with the United States, which has long been concerned about China dumping products.
Canada’s other deals with China include agreements on energy, public safety, and lumber.
Davos Speeches
In his speech at the WEF in Davos on Jan. 20, Carney criticized U.S. pressure to acquire Greenland, while saying middle powers should band together to resist pressure from major powers. “Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” he said.
Trump said the next day in his speech at the WEF that Carney “wasn’t so grateful,” adding that Canada “lives because of the United States.”
Carney said in another speech on Jan. 22 in Quebec City, this time to Canadians, that Canada “does not live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”
Later that day, Trump said he is rescinding his invitation to Carney to join the U.S.-led Board of Peace that is going to help rebuild Gaza.
In another Truth Social post on Jan. 23, Trump criticized Ottawa’s position on Greenland and China, saying, “Canada is against The Golden Dome being built over Greenland, even though The Golden Dome would protect Canada. Instead, they voted in favor of doing business with China, who will ‘eat them up’ within the first year!”
Meanwhile, Beijing’s envoy to Ottawa weighed in on the Greenland issue while taking a swipe at the United States, saying this week that Canada and China “see eye to eye” on supporting Greenland’s territorial integrity, according to The Canadian Press.
Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also criticized Carney’s recent comments and deal with China, suggesting that his recent remarks may be related to an upcoming election. He added that Ottawa’s EV deal with Beijing could jeopardize Ottawa’s chances when renegotiating the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement which is set for renewal this year.
“When the USMCA gets renegotiated this year… do you think the president of the United States is going to say you should keep having the second-best deal in the world?” he told Bloomberg on Jan. 22, making the point that Canada’s current trade deal with the United States ranks second after Mexico. Under the USMCA, 85 percent of Canadian goods are exempt from tariffs, while products not compliant with the trilateral deal face 35 percent tariffs. Mexico’s non-USMCA products are subject to 25 percent tariffs.
Carney hasn’t appeared at media press conferences since relations with Trump soured on Jan. 22, cancelling a scheduled press conference at the conclusion of a cabinet meeting in Quebec City on Jan. 23.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who took questions from the press instead, said Carney couldn’t attend due to a “scheduling issue.”
Carney was asked by reporters about his talks with Trump late on Jan. 22 as he walked to a cabinet meeting. He responded, “Oh, that’s the most boring question. Think of a new one.”
