Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “aggressively” walked back his comments made at last week’s Davos summit in a follow-up call with President Donald Trump.
A day before Trump accused his Canadian counterpart of being “ungrateful” to the United States in his Davos speech, Carney called on smaller countries to unite against economic coercion from greater powers without explicitly naming Trump.
The prime minister’s remarks were a veiled allusion to Trump’s tariff threats, which have been repeatedly lorded over Canada to ensure its cooperation on trade and border security. In a more direct statement after Trump’s speech, Carney claimed Canada doesn’t depend on the U.S.
Bessent, who was present for the Trump-Carney call in the Oval Office on Monday, said he wasn’t “sure what the prime minister was thinking” in making such “unfortunate” remarks.
“Of course, Canada depends on the U.S. There is much more north-south trade than there could ever be east-west trade,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
The Cabinet secretary was referencing Canada’s trade talks with China, which drew Trump’s ire.
Earlier this month, Canada struck a new strategic partnership with China to lower its tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. In exchange, China reduced its tariffs on Canadian agricultural products.
While initially in favor of the agreement, Trump appeared to change course after Carney’s remarks. The president threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all Canadian goods entering the U.S. if Canada pursued a broader free trade deal with China.
Carney denied that his country is pursuing a broader deal with China beyond the limited EV agreement.
“We have commitments under [the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement] not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification,” he said on Sunday. “We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy.”
Still, Canadian Internal Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc told U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that Canada is negotiating a “narrow trade agreement” with China. LeBlanc said the agreement is similar to the trade truce that Trump made with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last fall.
The Canadian official stressed that the trade talks are simply a review of the USMCA, not a renegotiation of the trade terms.
BESSENT SAYS CARNEY NOT ‘DOING THE BEST JOB’ FOR CANADA AMID CHINA TRADE TALKS
Bessent criticized Carney for trying to appease his globalist friends at Davos with the China trade talks instead of representing his own country’s interests.
“Canada is linked to the U.S.,” he said, “and the prime minister should do what’s best for the Canadian people rather than trying to push his own globalist agenda.”
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