Trump torches ties with Canada with 100 per cent tariff threat

TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 per cent tax on Canada if it strikes a trade deal with China, reversing his position last week when he said he was okay with such a trade deal.In a social media post on Saturday, Trump appeared to have changed his mind while lashing out at Canadian PM Mark Carney, saying “if he 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.”“China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life. If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A,” Trump said, referring to the Canadian PM as “Governor Carney.”Trump’s threat follows a remarkable address by Carney to global leaders at Davos where the Canadian PM raised the banner of revolt against U.S hegemony, warning that in a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: to compete with each other for favor or to combine to create a third path with impact.“Middle powers must act together because if we are not at the table, we are on the menu,” Carney said in an address that was widely acclaimed across the world. The open swipe at the U.S appears to have enraged Trump, who only last week had said if Carney struck a deal with China – which he did when he visited Beijing ahead of Davos – he should do it and he (Trump) was okay with it. But at Davos, where Carney was the toast of the global leadership, the U.S President turned sour, complaining that Canada gets many “freebies” from the US and “should be grateful,” and Carney’s remarks showed he “wasn’t so grateful.”“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump said in remarks that offended many Canadians and provoked Carney to retort that “Canada does not ‘live because of the United States.’ Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”“We are masters in our own house. This is our country. This is our future. The choice is ours,” Carney asserted, stating that Canada must be a “beacon” in an era of “democratic decline” and arguing that Canada’s success is built on values like inclusivity and diversity, a swipe at Trumpian America that believes whites are being displaced and sidelined by immigration. Trump has previously talked about making Canada the 51st state, and this week he posted an altered image of a map of the US that included Canada, Greenland, Venezuela and Cuba as part of its territory. The trolling has taken its toll of two centuries of amicable U.S-Canada ties that has resulted in the longest and mostly unguarded border in the world. A 100 per cent tariff on Canadian goods and products will be devastating for Ottawa, which is Washington’s second largest trade partner after Mexico. For the full year of 2025, total bilateral trade in goods and services is estimated to have crossed $900 billion, racking up a surplus of more than $85 billion.