Prime Minister Mark Carney takes part in a bilateral meeting with Premier of China Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Jan. 15.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Donald Trump is threatening to impose a 100 per cent tariff on Canada if it makes a trade deal with China, registering opposition to closer ties between Ottawa and Beijing under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
In a post on Truth Social, the U.S. President argued a trade agreement between Canada and China would result in Canadian territory being a transit point for shipping Chinese goods into the United States.
“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken,” Mr. Trump said, in belittling language that cast the Prime Minister as state governor instead of the leader of a sovereign country.
“If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A.,” the President wrote.
In a second post later Saturday, Mr. Trump said he would save Canada from being conquered by China.
“The last thing the World needs is to have China take over Canada. It’s NOT going to happen, or even come close to happening!” he said.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Dominic LeBlanc, minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, said Canada and China are not working on a trade deal.
“There is no pursuit of a free trade deal with China. What was achieved was resolution on several important tariff issues,” he said in a post on X.
He said Canada remains committed to the Canada-U.S. relationship.
“As the Prime Minister said this week, Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in our economy and security – and we will remain focused on ensuring the future of that relationship will benefit workers and businesses on both sides of our border,” Mr. LeBlanc said.
The Chinese embassy in Canada, asked for comment on Mr. Trump’s threat, provided a statement saying Beijing is ready to work with Ottawa to advance the “new Strategic Partnership” they struck this month. “The sound and steady growth of China-Canada relations serves the common interests of the two countries and contributes to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the world,” the embassy said in a statement.
The new tariff threat is the latest attack by Mr. Trump on Mr. Carney since the Prime Minister delivered a provocative speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that amounted to a veiled attack on the damage the U.S. President has done to the international rules-based order built on international law, norms, treaties and institutions such as the United Nations and World Trade Organization.
Read and watch Mark Carney's Davos speech at the World Economic Forum
Since taking office in January, 2025, Mr. Trump has hit Canada with a slew of tariffs. While most goods still enter the United States tariff-free because they are sold according to the provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the President has imposed a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminum, 25 per cent on autos and 35 per cent on any goods traded outside the USMCA, with the exception of oil, gas and potash, at 10 per cent. His administration has also significantly hiked duties on Canadian softwood.
Canada and China struck a “strategic partnership” earlier this month to boost ties and allow Chinese investors to play a larger role in Canada’s economy. During a four-day visit to Beijing, Mr. Carney praised China as a more predictable trading partner than the United States and broke with Washington over tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
What to know about the Canada-China tariff deal on EVs and canola
The Prime Minister agreed to allow nearly 50,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles into Canada at a low tariff instead of a 100 per cent tariff Ottawa imposed on these imports in 2024 along with the former Biden administration. In return, Beijing scaled back retaliatory tariffs on canola seed, Canada’s No. 1 export to China.
Mr. Carney also welcomed Chinese EV makers into the Canadian market, saying he would like to see investments in Canada within three years.
Opinion: Carney’s survival plan: Canada and other ‘middle powers’ must co-operate in order to thrive
Mr. Trump, who previously expressed no opposition to Canada’s entente with China, has now shifted his position.
“China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” the President predicted in his Saturday social media post.
He had previously praised Mr. Carney’s agreement with China, saying “That’s what he should be doing. It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” the U.S. President said at the time.
Canada’s annual exports to China – about 5 per cent of overall exports – pale in comparison what it ships to the United States each year. Traditionally about 75 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
In his Jan. 21 address at Davos, Mr. Trump described Mr. Carney as ungrateful toward the United States.
Eight notable moments from Trump’s Davos speech
“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful. But they’re not,” Mr. Trump said. “I watched your Prime Minister yesterday, he wasn’t so grateful. They should be grateful.”
He said Canada only exists because of the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump takes aim at Prime Minister Mark Carney in a speech at Davos, saying 'Canada lives because of the United States,' a day after Mr. Carney warned the forum that a U.S.-led rules-based international order is over.
The next day, Mr. Trump also retracted an invitation to Mr. Carney for Canada to join his so-called “Board of Peace” project.
“Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time,” the U.S. President posted Jan. 22.
This followed Mr. Carney’s address in Davos, a global gathering of political and business elites, in which he called for middle powers to stop pretending the rules-based international order is still functioning, and instead build coalitions to survive in a new era where great powers prey on smaller countries to take what they want.
In his speech, Mr. Carney urged countries to start publicly condemning economic coercion, even when practised by an ally, in another clear reference to the United States. “The old order is not coming back,” he said.
David MacNaughton, former Canadian ambassador to Washington, said Canadians shouldn’t be too concerned about President Trump’s latest threat.
The USMCA he helped negotiate in 2018 with former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer does not allow Canada to do comprehensive trade deals with countries such as China, he said.
The trade pact was signed by Mr. Trump in his first term, which he hailed as the best deal ever negotiated.
“Not sure what all the fuss is about what Trump said on Truth Social. Our canola for limited EV imports is hardly a “trade deal” and the CUSMA deal [a Canadian term for the pact] explicitly prohibits participants from doing comprehensive trade deals with “non-market economies,” Mr. MacNaughton said.
“At the time I asked Lighthizer what that specifically meant. He said “any country starting with the letter C and ending with A that isn’t Canada. Trump’s words aren’t news.”
Article 32.10 in the USMCA obliges Canada, the United States and Mexico to give one another three months’ notice before starting free-trade talks with a “non-market country” such as China.
It says Canada or other partners must also disclose to other USMCA signatories “as much information as possible” on objectives for their negotiations with a country deemed to have a non-market economy. Washington argues the Chinese economy is too distorted by state subsidies to be considered a market economy.
The article says USMCA signatories must give each other 30 days’ notice before signing a deal with a non-market economy. Finally, Washington or other partners can withdraw from the trilateral North American pact within six months of one of them inking a deal with a non-market economy.