Trump threatens 100 percent tariff on Canada over China deal

In a statement shared on Truth Social on Saturday morning, Trump said Carney is “sorely mistaken” if he thinks Canada can become a “‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States”.

“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 wrote in the post, which referred to Carney as “governor” instead of prime minister.

The Canadian minister responsible for Canada-US trade, Dominic LeBlanc, said on X later on Saturday that “there is no pursuit of a free trade deal with China”.

Instead, he described a deal announced last week between Ottawa and Beijing as a “resolution on several important tariff issues”.

“Canada’s new government is building a stronger Canadian economy, with a plan that is building our strength at home and strengthening our trading partnerships throughout the world,” LeBlanc said.

According to Al Jazeera, Trump’s tariffs threat comes as tensions mounted between Canada and the US this week after Carney delivered an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that was widely seen as a rebuke of the Trump administration’s policies.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said in the speech, urging the world’s “middle powers” to deepen cooperation in the face of coercion and threats.

The prime minister’s remarks drew the ire of Trump, who responded by saying that “Canada lives because of the United States”. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements,” he said in Davos.

Trump also revoked an invitation for Carney to join his so-called “Board of Peace” this week.

The US president has been threatening to impose steep levies on Canadian goods since before he formally came into office in January 2025, while he has repeatedly said he wants Canada to become the US’s “51st state”.

That has plunged ties between the North American neighbours to historic lows, and pushed Carney in recent months to seek out new economic partnerships, including with China, the European Union, and Qatar.

MNA