Canadian Prime Minister Claims Canada Is One of Only Two Countries Daring to Tax the U.S.

After Trump returned to the White House, Canadians had to face the threat of becoming the 51st state of the United States, and began to see their mutual dependence with the U.S. as a risk rather than an opportunity.

According to Bloomberg on the 16th, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney admitted in an interview with the media that the U.S. is no longer the partner Canada once had, and its priorities have shifted. "Given the fundamental change in Canada-U.S. relations, we clearly must take action," he said.

However, American media pointed out that Carney's attitude toward the U.S. during his campaign and after taking office was completely different.

When questioned about his soft stance towards Trump, he quickly denied it, saying, "First and foremost, globally, there are only two countries that have imposed retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., and we are one of them."

He did not explicitly mention the other country, but the American media added that this country is China. After the Stockholm trade talks in August, China and the U.S. announced that they would "pause the implementation of the 24% tariff for 90 days."

Previously, the EU had also prepared to impose retaliatory measures on approximately 100 billion euros (117 billion U.S. dollars) worth of American goods, but suspended this countermeasure after reaching a trade agreement with the U.S. in August.

However, the American media host did not accept his statement, instead "adding insult to injury" by saying that although Carney had once vowed to "stand up to the bully (referring to Trump)" during the campaign, his current tone was much milder. Moreover, in response to Trump's dissatisfaction with Canada's digital services tax, the Canadian Treasury suddenly announced the cancellation of the policy just before it took effect to advance the trade negotiations with the U.S.

Bloomberg's report further noted that this tax policy was introduced before Carney's government came into power and would have affected American tech giants such as Meta and Amazon. However, after Trump threatened to cut off trade negotiations, the Canadian government canceled it just hours before the policy took effect. The American media believes this is a clear demonstration of the U.S.'s influence.

Carney also admitted that the digital services tax ultimately failed to be implemented, which was indeed related to Trump's opposition. But he defended himself, saying, "We made the decision based on the circumstances at the time. Look, what happened after we canceled the digital services tax? Within a few weeks, Trump confirmed through an executive order that our vast majority of trade enjoyed zero-tariff treatment."

Carney defended his shift in attitude, stating that as a prime minister, his duty was to strive for the best possible outcome for Canada.

"In the short term, the U.S. has significant influence over Canada, the EU, and the UK. Because our economies were built on certain consensuses in the past, but these consensuses have changed now," he said. "Therefore, part of the current work is to stabilize this bilateral relationship."

At the same time, Carney emphasized that the core strategy for dealing with U.S. pressure is, "We can give ourselves far more than the United States can take away." He said, "This requires Canada to build domestic economic integration and achieve external diversification to ensure that Canada will never fall into such a passive situation again." Carney said, "It takes time, but it's worth it."

Speaking about the U.S. preparing to launch the renegotiation of its largest free trade agreement, the USMCA, Carney said Canada's strategy is to clearly inform the Trump administration that the economic integration among the three countries of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada is crucial to the U.S.'s competitiveness in key areas such as steel and automobiles.

"We can make the U.S. stronger in these fields, and our strategy is to ensure that this is fully understood," he said.

Carney also said he had learned a lot from Trump. This statement was met with a subtle question from the American media: When Carney canceled the consumer carbon tax, he used a similar approach to Trump signing an executive order in front of the camera. "Did you learn 'showmanship' from Trump? It doesn't look like something a Canadian would do."

Carney denied this, saying, "Strictly speaking, I don't think it was influenced by him. I just think that in times of great public pressure and uncertainty, 'clear communication' is important."

He added, "When you're in a crisis, such as this trade crisis, economic crisis, or even sovereignty crisis, you need to act decisively and show the public your decisiveness. That's what we did at the time."

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846281345219591/

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