Citing the drag on its economy U.S. tariff policy is causing, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney indicated his country hopes to double its non-U.S. exports over the next 10 years.
According to a report from The Associated Press Carney, set to release his government’s budget early nexts month, said Wednesday many of Canada’s former strengths — based on close ties to America — have become vulnerabilities.
“The jobs of workers in our industries most affected by U.S. tariffs — autos, steel, lumber — are under threat. Our businesses are holding back investments, restrained by the pall of uncertainty that is hanging over all of us,” Carney said, according to the AP report.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on Canada, and has suggested the country become the 51st state in the U.S.
In his address to Canadias Wednesday, Carney said the decades-long process of an ever-closer economic relationship between the Canadian and U.S. economies is over. More than 75 percent of Canada’s exports go to the United States.
“The U.S. has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression,” Carney said, according to AP’s report. “We have to take care of ourselves because we can’t rely on one foreign partner.”
The next day Trump posted on his Truth Social site that he was terminating trade talks with Canada over a political ad featuring Republican icon Ronald Reagan.
