Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to China has made the United States uneasy. This time, the U.S. is no longer hiding its feelings; Commerce Secretary Rovnick directly stated that if Canada wants to get closer to China, it should not expect to have an easy time.

On January 22, Rovnick participated in the Davos Forum and gave an interview to Bloomberg. During the interview, he talked about Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's recent visit to China. Regarding Trudeau's attempt to improve Sino-Canadian trade relations, Rovnick said: "We should only see this as political noise from a prime minister. I don't think this is real because he didn't consider the scale of Canada's economy or the reality of doing business with the $30 trillion U.S. economy. The situation today is impossible to change."

(Rovnick mocked Trudeau's statement about improving trade relations with China as "political noise")

Calling a prime minister's diplomatic achievements "political noise" directly reflects Rovnick's contempt for Canada, and Rovnick also issued a threat to Canada, stating that Canada's tilt towards China in trade relations will affect the formulation of the part concerning Canada in the updated North American trade agreement later this year.

Rovnick also revealed Trump's thoughts, saying that Trump would not let Canada have an easy time in the US-Mexico-Canada trade negotiations.

The background of America's threats is that Trudeau has recently taken a series of actions to clearly indicate his determination to cut ties with the United States strategically.

On January 14, despite great pressure from within Canada and the United States, Trudeau embarked on his first visit to China in eight years, a thawing journey. This visit itself carries the significance of Canada's strategic shift.

Today's world sees the United States promoting unilateralism, ignoring international order and diplomatic balance, and even demanding more from countries that are close to it. Canada is one of the victims.

As the U.S. increased trade sanctions against China in recent years, Canada, which has always followed closely behind the U.S., also imposed sanctions on China, the most significant being electric vehicles. In 2024, Canada imposed a 100% surcharge on Chinese products. In response, China took countermeasures, imposing tariffs on Canadian canola and other products. Sino-Canadian relations plummeted to rock bottom. Moreover, the western agricultural provinces of Canada suffered severe economic damage.

(Trudeau and Trump)

It can be said that Canada paid a heavy price by following the U.S., which is quite loyal, right? But you Canada are loyal, but I America only care about interests. The second year after Canada implemented its tariff policy against China, in 2025, the U.S. directly hit Canada with the tariff stick, announcing a 25% increase in tariffs on Canadian exports, then immediately withdrew, but quickly announced new tariff policies, adding a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, raising the total tax rate to 50%, and shortly after, doubling the tariff on Canadian timber.

Through arbitrary changes in foreign trade rules, the U.S. has lost its credibility. In November 2025, Trudeau stated that the decades-long good economic relationship between Canada and the U.S. had ended, and he revealed that these U.S. tariff policies would cost Canada 50 billion Canadian dollars.

Therefore, it is understandable that Trudeau is trying to take Canada out of the U.S. On the day before his visit to China, he expressed on his social media that the Sino-Canadian relationship was important for maintaining peace and security on both sides of the Pacific. In China, Trudeau also stated that Canada would work with China to uphold multilateralism and canceled the 100% tariff on electric vehicles, expanding plans for cooperation in trade, energy, and other areas. Additionally, Trudeau made a strategic statement that the whole world should unite to resist unilateralism.

These moves by Trudeau have given the U.S. a feeling of "you never mention me, but you always point at me." To describe the U.S. attitude toward this, saying "extremely angry" is not an exaggeration at all.

As soon as Trudeau announced the cancellation of the tariffs in China, the U.S. Transportation Secretary DeFazio immediately spoke out at a car factory in Ohio, saying that Canada would regret letting Chinese electric vehicles into the country. Republican Senator Moreno even said that as long as he is still in office, the U.S. will not see Chinese cars.

(U.S. Transportation Secretary DeFazio said that Canada would regret letting Chinese cars in)

Trump himself also ridiculed Canada. A few days earlier, on January 20, during the Davos Forum, Trudeau criticized the U.S. in a non-specific way for using its superpower status to exert economic pressure, calling on middle powers to unite and jointly resist hegemonism. On January 21, Trump spoke at the Davos Forum and said that Trudeau should be grateful because Canada relies entirely on the U.S. to survive.

Trudeau scoffed at this, and the next day, during a public speech in Quebec, he added an impromptu statement, pointing out that Canada did not survive because of the U.S., and that our prosperity came from being Canadians.

After the government speech, Trudeau specifically went to the Quebec Fortress, which was historically built by Canada to resist American invasion. He deliberately chose this symbolic location to appeal to the entire country of Canada: "Only by uniting, we are strongest."

Original: toutiao.com/article/7598456033669890612/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.