Donald Trump for the first time used an international venue on Thursday for his vague suggestion that the United States gain an additional state: Canada.
In his first global event since becoming US president earlier this week, Trump spoke via video link at the Davos economic forum in Switzerland.
His speech and the question-and-answer session that followed offered a prime example of the tightening of various allies. planned for his presidency
What was less expected, until recently, was the intensity of that squeeze, the frequency of its fire on Canada, and its rhetoric of its sovereignty.
Trump came with a broad message to the international business community: Build in the United States or face punitive tariffs.
“Come make your product in America, and we’ll give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth,” Trump said, somewhat. exaggerated the tax advantage of American companies.
“But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you have to pay a fee.”
And while he took jabs at several US allies, including the European Union, he continued to disparage Canada.
Trump has threatened to impose severe tariffs on the US’s North American neighbors next week, although he has also signed a executive order which suggests a longer time horizon, requiring a study on the borders of North America by April 1st.
This same order suggests that Trump is looking to put pressure on additional fronts. He refers to the planned review of the North American trade agreement, and also orders his officials to report on trade deficits and foreign taxes which hit US businesses.
In his speech at Davos, he complained again about the US trade deficit with Canada – which is real, but a fraction of the $200-$250 billion US Trump claimed in his speech, and tends to go up and down with the price of American oil imports.
“We’re not going to have it anymore. We can’t do it,” Trump said, during an extended riff on Canada.
US President Donald Trump, speaking via video to people gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, argued that other countries, including Canada, are taking advantage of the United States.
“As you probably know, I say:” You can always become a state, and if you are a state, we don’t have a deficit. We don’t need fees.”
He complained that Canada has been difficult to deal with and repeated his past complaints about not needing their products: “We don’t need to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don’t need their wood because we have our forests we do not need their oil and gas.
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The facts are not so straightforward. On oil, for example, it is true that the United States is get closer to the self-sufficiency of what has been in decades, but it is still a net importerexcessively from Canadaand its refineries are designed to take Canada’s heavy crude.
What is undeniably real is the economic pressure it exerts.
It’s not just the 25 percent tariff threat, although that’s pretty bad. Companies prepare for damage and some, like Honda, have expression nervousness about its production plans in Canada.
And it’s not just Trump’s other trade threats. It is also the massive deregulation effort that he launched in critical minerals, oil and gas, which risks pulling investment in the United States from other countries.
There is also military pressure. Trump has previously threatened to leave NATO countries defenseless if they don’t increase defense spending; and upped the ante in Davos.
Trump on Thursday said he will ask NATO countries to increase military spending to five percent of GDP. No NATO country has reached that level and most I’m not even close. Few are even halfway there. The United States is at 3.4 percent.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted that Canada has almost tripled its defense budget, and little time promised to reach the current NATO target of two percent. Is it it won’t happen for years, however, according to a parliamentary watchdog.
Canada will have a great opportunity to discuss these issues with Trump in various international forums this year.
There is the G7 in Alberta in June, after the NATO summit in Europe later that month, although both events could happen after the federal election.
Meanwhile, Trump is smashing the value of generations of norms in the Canada-United States relationship, publicly questioning Canada’s sovereignty in a way that no American politician has done in more than a century.
But all these discussions about status will remain entirely hypothetical if American public opinion has anything to do with it. Several polls – from the Wall Street Journal, Reuters-Ipsos and the Economist-YouGov – conducted in recent days suggest that the idea of annexing Canada is massively unpopular.
https://i.cbc.ca/1.7440228.1737680128!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/switzerland-davos.jpg?im=Resize%3D620
2025-01-20 04:34:00
