Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has told reporters that he will not back down from his criticism of the world’s unchallenged superpowers during his Davos speech, the BBC reports.
Carney’s stance came after US President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Canadian had aggressively backtracked on his remarks. Carney said: “To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos.”
Bessent told Fox News on the 26th of January that Carney had aggressively backtracked on some of his comments about Trump. The Canadian prime minister came to the media spotlight after speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he indirectly criticized Trump for disrupting the world order. Trump himself responded in his speech that Canada exists only because of the United States.
Speaking to reporters, Carney indicated that Besant’s information about the content of the phone call was not true. He also added that it was Trump who made the call, and
the two had a good conversation on a wide range of issues, including Ukraine, Venezuela, security
in the Arctic region and Canada’s recent trade agreement with China.
The free trade agreement (USMCA) between Canada, the United States and Mexico, which is scheduled for mandatory review this year, was also discussed.
Carney made it clear in his speech in Davos that Canada is the first country to understand and respond to the changes in US trade policy initiated by Trump.
Speaking to the House of Commons of Canada, Carney informed that negotiations on the review of the USMCA would begin in the coming weeks. The prime minister also said that the world has changed, and the truth is that almost nothing is normal in the United States.
Meanwhile, Bessent criticized Canada’s trade agreement with China in an interview with Fox News, adding that he was not sure what Carney meant when he gave his speech in Davos. The American stressed that Canada is dependent on the United States, and Carney should think more about Canadians than trying to push globalist rhetoric. Bessent’s comments follow Trump’s threat to impose a 100% import tariff on Canadian goods, saying that it would allow the United States to freely import goods from China.
The agreement between Beijing and Ottawa provides that China will reduce the tax on Canadian canola oil, in return for Canada reducing the tax on Chinese electric cars. Carney noted that Canada is not seeking a free trade agreement with China and has never considered it.
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