U.S. Treasury Secretary Bentsen warns Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau not to "cause trouble" before the USMCA trade negotiations
Treasury Secretary Bentsen warned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday that his public comments would be counterproductive to the formal review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade agreement that protects Canada from the most severe impacts of U.S. trade policies - tariffs under President Trump.
Carney gave a high-profile speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week condemning economic coercion. Since then, he has been engaged in disputes with Trump and Bentsen over related trade issues. On Saturday, Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on Canadian goods, targeting Canada's trade agreement with China.
Bentsen told CNBC: "I won't let the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade fight happen for some cheap political points. Either you work for your political career or you work for the people of Canada." Speaking about Carney's background as a central banker, Bentsen said: "I've seen what happens when a technocrat tries to become a politician. There's never a good outcome."
Trump and Carney had a call on Monday, after which Bentsen told Fox News that Carney "was very proactive in retracting some of his unfortunate remarks made at Davos." The next day, Carney took a different stance. He told reporters, "Clearly, I said those (Davos Forum speech) and I meant it."
The North American Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2020 during Trump's first term, but recently Trump has shown considerable indifference toward it. He said, "I really don't care about this."
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1855664703814664/
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