Donald Trump isn’t identified for his persistence. Nor does he stand out for his diplomatic abilities. The president of the United States likes to mark territory and makes use of threats to precise his discontent. This Saturday he threatened Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, with imposing a 100% tariff if he intensifies commerce relations with China.
“If Governor Carney believes that he is going to turn Canada into a port of entry for China to send goods and products to the United States, he is very wrong,” the Republican wrote in a message on his social community, Truth. “China will swallow Canada whole, devour it mercilessly, destroying its businesses, its social fabric and its way of life,” he continued.
Trump calls Carney “governor” with a deliberate double which means: on the one hand, Carney has been the one governor within the historical past of two central banks of various nations: Canada and England; But, above all, with that title Trump revives his provocative demand that the northern neighbor turn into the 51st state of the United States, as he has been threatening since he returned to the Oval Office, a 12 months in the past. State leaders are identified within the United States as governors.
“If Canada reaches an agreement with China, a 100% tariff will immediately be imposed on all Canadian goods and products entering the United States,” Trump mentioned.
The warning comes just a few days after the Canadian prime minister gave a revealing speech on the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) wherein he urged medium-sized nations to ally with one another to flee the unequal relations imposed by the good powers. Carney referred to “the breakdown of the world order, the end of a beautiful story and the beginning of a brutal reality in which geopolitics between the great powers is not subject to any limits.”
Without expressly mentioning it, his speech referred to the geopolitical change that has occurred after Trump got here to energy. The United States, below the mantra of America First (USA First), seeks subordination greater than collaboration. Many applauded Carney’s intervention as the best ethical criticism of Trumpism made to date by a global chief.
Just a few days earlier than addressing the political and enterprise elite in Davos, Carney had traveled to China to shut a commerce settlement that eases tariffs on 50,000 Chinese electrical automobiles in alternate for different business issues. This is yet one more step for Canada in that “variable geometry” technique that consists of diversifying the community of allies in order to not depend upon only one: the risky and unpredictable United States.
It isn’t Trump’s solely broadside at Canada. Last May, it imposed 35% tariffs on metal, aluminum, automobiles and lumber from its northern neighbor, arguing that it permits the arrival of unlawful immigrants and fentanyl. Although they’ve been negotiating on the highest stage for months, Canada is the one G7 nation that has not reached a commerce settlement with the United States.
Trump imposed one other 10% tariff final October when the Ontario provincial authorities launched a promotional video in the course of the baseball World Series that includes Ronald Reagan in a 1987 speech expressing his disagreement with the tariffs. The livid response of the Republican president prompted new diplomatic pressure between each neighbors, who regardless of every little thing preserve a cordial relationship.
https://elpais.com/internacional/2026-01-24/trump-amenaza-a-canada-con-aranceles-del-100-si-firma-un-acuerdo-comercial-con-china.html