Mark Carney has blasted Donald Trump as a ”bully” over his trade threats to Canada.
Carney, who is currently the favourite to take over from Justin Trudeau as Canada’s Prime Minister, promised that his country would “retaliate” if the President goes through with his threat of imposing high tariffs of 25 per cent of goods.
He said: “President Trump probably thinks Canada will cave in.”
“But we are going to stand up to a bully, we’re not going to back down. We’re united and we will retaliate,” he told BBC’s Newsnight.
“But we are going to stand up to a bully, we’re not going to back down. We’re united and we will retaliate,” Carney said
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Carney said that the President’s move to announce tariffs was “entirely unjustified” and that Canada has “a lot of cards” and will “start playing a few”, matching US tariffs “dollar for dollar”.
Last night, Trump said that he intended to raise tariffs from February 1 to 25 per cent on Mexico and Canada, and 20 per cent for China – driving concerns that an inflation crisis as well as a global trade war might be on the horizon.
Analysts have warned that such action could disrupt over $2.1trillion worth of trade each year.
Together, imports to the US from Mexico, Canada and China almost make up half of goods trade, which might culminate in higher prices for Americans in the end, experts warn.
“We will target our tariffs on those goods and services that will most affect the United States and least affect Canada,” Carney told the BBC.
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“To be clear, this will have an impact on the Canadian economy and that impact will be felt quickly and to a greater extent in the US.
“Canadians are in no mood to make any concessions here.”
“This is entirely unjustified and we have many, many other options that we don’t want to deploy but we will if we have to,” he warned.
Canada has threatened to impose duties on Florida orange juice, as well as a wider set of targets that could total $105billion worth of American imports. Public consultations will be held before the plans go ahead.
Trump said that he intended to raise tariffs from February 1 to 25 per cent on Mexico and Canada, and 20 per cent for China
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Julian Jessop – from the Institute of Economic Affairs – has suggested that the EU could be “next in the firing line”, according to trade data.
However, while data from 2023 indicates that the US had a trade deficit with China, Mexico, Canada and the EU, in contrast, Britain had a trade surplus with the US.
Further details on Trump’s tariffs have not yet come to light.
The President has said: “We’ll be doing pharmaceuticals and drugs, medicines, etc, all forms of medicine and pharmaceuticals.
“And we’ll be doing, very importantly, steel and we’ll also be doing chips and things associated with chips.
“We’re going to put tariffs on chips. We’re going to put tariffs on oil and gas.
“That will happen very soon, I think about February 18. And we’re going to put a lot of tariffs on steel.”