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Donald Trump didn’t hold back when Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked about his deal with China this week. The US president said such a deal simply made sense.
“Well, that’s good, that’s what you should do. I mean, signing a trade deal is a good thing. If you can make a deal with China, you should do that, right?” Trump said at the White House. on Thursday.
Heading into Beijing for this week’s meeting, there was no question that a deal could be reached. The details of such an agreement have been publicly debated for more than a year.
At issue was whether Carney could find a politically palatable deal. On the one hand, he couldn’t afford to anger the auto industry or Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
But with the renewal of the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) later this year, the Canadian delegation had to walk a fine line of not offending the notoriously mercurial US president.
Referring to CUSMA, also known as the US-Mexico-Canada-agreement, Goldie Hyder, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said: “Our recommendation is ‘do no harm’ in the review and renewal of the USMCA.”
“We can’t see ourselves leaving North America for pastures new.”
See | Carney announces deal with China:
of Only consent allows To begin with, it will send 49,000 EVs to Canada (that’s three percent of all vehicles sold in this country), and Beijing will reduce tariffs on canola imports, but not eliminate them.
Jim Thorne, chief market strategist at wealth management firm Wellington Altus, says there are no red lines for the US administration to cross.
“Carney is testing where the red line is,” he told CBC News.
Many American media portrayed the Carney deal as a break from the US; That Canada was increasingly trying to break away from a hostile neighbor.
But Thorne misses the broader point. They say the Canada-China deal could be seen as a useful reference rather than a provocation to Trump.
“I look at the Canada-China DIA.“Americans are looking at it as a litmus test,” he said.
Donald Trump’s red lines have changed over time. But the threat of China gaining power in North America is something he has been warning about for decades.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the deal is problematic for Canada.
“There’s a reason we don’t.Lots of Chinese cars in the US. It’s because we have tariffs to protect American automobiles and Americans from those vehicles,” he told CNBC on Friday morning.
US Transportation Secretary Shane Duffy said Canada regrets bringing Chinese cars into the market in retrospect.
But none of the U.S. officials seem concerned that the deal will boost Canada-U.S. relations.
“I don’t expect this to disrupt US Canadian supply,” Greer said. “Those cars go to Canada – they don’t come here.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who announced deals with China on a range of sectors, including tariff-quota arrangements on canola and electric vehicles, took questions about the terms of the deal, what it means for Canada — and the implications of getting closer to China.
Carl Shammota, chief market strategist at the financial services firm, said Carney and his team have ruled out potential issues behind the U.S.
“The Trump administration has taken America out of the race for electric vehicles, and has not made agriculture a top strategic priority,” he said.
“This agreement was likely approved through a back channel with the administration, meaning that — aside from issuing a few compelling statements of hostility — US officials will simply ignore this development.”
And the first reaction seems to confirm that analysis.
But it wasn’t that long ago that Trump was initially running his anti-tariff ad on the Ontario government during the World Series.
“If I were in Canada, I would take the same announcement,” Trump said as he left the airport in the morning.
But within two days, Trump said the ad had “fraudulently” re-used Ronald Reagan’s negative comments about tariffs and cut off all trade talks with Ottawa.
Hyder said it will take time for Americans to absorb the news from China and more time to see how the president feels about the deal. But he thinks the Americans are hoping to gather information useful for their own trade deal.
“Let’s see what they do. The president of the United States is going to China. Will he come back with the same thing on cars? I wouldn’t be surprised at all,” Hyder said.