Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has hailed several new trade agreements, pledging to further diversify Ottawa’s partners while saying he “expects” the United States to respect his country’s sovereignty.
Carney discussed the trade deals during a meeting on Thursday with provincial and territorial leaders.
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“Our country is more united, ambitious and determined than it has been in decades, and it’s incumbent on all of us to seize this moment, build big things together,” Carney said, as he hailed 12 new economic and security accords reached over the last six months.
His comments come amid ongoing frictions with the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has previously pushed to make Canada a “51st state”.
Carney highlighted in particular a new agreement with China to lower trade levies. That deal prompted a rebuke last week from Trump, who threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on Canada.
In the face of Trump’s accusations that Canada would serve as a “drop-off port” for Chinese goods, Carney clarified that Ottawa was not seeking a free-trade agreement with Beijing.
But on Thursday, he nevertheless played up the perks he said the agreement would offer to Canada’s agriculture sector.
“Part of that agreement unlocks more than $7bn in export markets for Canadian farmers, ranchers, fish harvesters and workers across our country,” Carney said.
Carney added that Ottawa would soon seek to advance “trading relationships with global giants” including India, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the South American trade bloc Mercosur.
“And we will work to renew our most important economic and security relationship with the United States through the joint review of the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement later this year,” he said, referring to the regional free trade agreement, which expires in July.
‘Respect Canadian sovereignty’
Carney’s pledge to diversify Canada’s portfolio of trade and security partners comes just eight days after he delivered an attention-grabbing speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
During the address, Carney warned that the “rules-based” international order was a fiction that was fading, replaced by “an era of great power rivalry”, where might makes right.
“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically,” Carney told the audience in Davos.
“We knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”
He ultimately called for the so-called “middle powers” of the world to rally together in these unpredictable times.
The speech was widely seen as a rebuke to Trump, who has launched an aggressive tariff campaign on global trading partners, including Canada.
In early January, Trump also abducted the leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, in what critics describe as a violation of international law.
His pledge to “run” Venezuela was followed by a series of aggressive statements towards the self-governing Danish territory of Greenland, which he threatened to seize.
Those threats have sent shudders through the NATO alliance, which counts both the US and Denmark as members.
Since before the start of his second term, Trump has also pushed to expand US control into Canada, repeatedly calling the country a “state” and its prime minister a “governor”.
In response to Carney’s speech at Davos, Trump withdrew Carney’s invitation to join his so-called Board of Peace.
Carney, however, has publicly stood by his statements, dismissing US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s claims that he “aggressively” walked back his position during a private call with Trump.
In a separate exchange on Thursday, Carney was asked about reports that US officials had met with separatists seeking independence for the oil-wealthy province of Alberta.
The Financial Times reported that State Department officials have held three meetings with the Alberta Prosperity Project, a group that pushes for a referendum on whether the energy-producing western province should break away from Canada.
“We expect the US administration to respect Canadian sovereignty,” Carney replied.
“I’m always clear in my conversations with President Trump to that effect.”
