Carney: Canada’s economic ties with US now a weakness

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday said the country’s economic ties to the U.S. have become a “weakness,” pointing to global uncertainty caused by President Trump’s trade and tariff policies.

“The world is more dangerous and divided. The U.S. has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression,” Carney said in a Sunday video address entitled “Foreword Guidance.”

“Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become weaknesses. Weaknesses that we must correct,” he continued. 

Carney, a former central bank head in both Canada and England, said Ottawa would focus on growing investments and merging its provinces and territories into a single, unified national market to spur its global standing. 

“We have to take care of ourselves because we can’t rely on one foreign partner. We can’t control the disruption coming from our neighbours. We can’t bet our future on the hope that it will suddenly stop,” Carney said. 

“But we can control what happens here. We can build a stronger country that can withstand disruptions from abroad, that creates good jobs here at home, that’s a leader in this new world, with a vast network of reliable allies,” he added.

Carney’s address comes as Washington and Ottawa prepare to renegotiate the North American trade pact along with Mexico.

The Canadian prime minister emerged as a key figure in the global scramble to counter Trump’s economic belligerence with a speech at the World Economic Forum in January, when he called on “middle powers” to unite and form a counterweight to superpowers.

Earlier this year, Canada forged a trade deal with China, lifting its  100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) and raising its cap on EV imports in exchange for Beijing lowering tariffs on Canadian farm products.

Trump initially welcomed the deal, but has since attacked it, threatening to halt the opening of a major bridge that will connect Detroit and Windsor, Canada.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday ripped Canada’s negotiating strategy, saying it “sucks” during an event hosted by Semafor. Lutnick said the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), signed during Trump’s first term, should be “reimagined” and “reassessed.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Canada spiked last year as Trump started calling America’s northern neighbor the “51st state.” Carney’s election in March, replacing former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saw a warming of relations.

However, Carney’s moves to reduce Canada’s dependence on the U.S. has soured relations with Trump.

Carney said in Sunday’s address that the push for Ottawa’s independence from the U.S. would make Canada a stronger world power because “Canada has what the world wants, from energy to education.” 

“We have the values to which most of the world aspires. And we’re a reliable partner in a world that is anything but,” the prime minister said.

“We’re defending Canadian sovereignty by investing in our security and creating an industry to support it. We’ve embarked on an ambitious new mission to rebuild…” he added.

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