Trump Calls Canada One of World’s ‘Worst Countries’ as Trade War Escalates - Newsweek

President Donald Trump intensified his rhetoric against Canada on Monday, calling the United States' northern neighbor "one of the worst countries in the entire world" as trade tensions between the two allies continued to escalate.

Last month, Trump placed 50 percent tariffs on roughly $28 billion worth of Canadian goods, and Prime Minister Mark Carney responded “dollar for dollar.”

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump accused Canada, America's second-largest trading partner after Mexico, of treating the United States "very unfairly." The president cited what he described as steep tariffs on American agricultural products and said Canadian leaders "feel entitled."

"They want to have a deal with us," Trump said of Canada. "They call us all the time. The problem is, they have treated the United States very unfairly. They have been one of the worst countries in the entire world. We get along with China, we get along with people, we make good deals, but Canada has been really very difficult to deal with, actually, and they charge our farmers 400% tariffs and more. They take advantage of us. They feel entitled."

Trump was likely referring to Canada's dairy tariff regime, under which imports above certain quota levels can face tariffs exceeding 200 percent. But those duties apply only to over-quota shipments, and the Canadian Dairy Commission has said U.S. dairy exports have not been subject to those tariffs because they have remained within the access levels negotiated under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

"To date, no U.S. dairy products imported by Canada have been subjected to those higher tariffs," commission spokesperson Philippe Charlebois said in a March statement.

Newsweek reached out to Carney's office and the Canadian Dairy Commission via email on Monday afternoon for comment.

Trump also argued Monday that Canada relies heavily on the U.S. economy while offering little in return, saying Americans provide support ranging from military cooperation to icebreakers. He said Canada has become overly dependent on its southern neighbor and insisted the U.S. does not need Canadian resources, adding that "there's nothing they have that we need."

The president quipped, "We're gonna win everything. We even have Lake Ontario is now Lake America. Canada is going to come in and say, 'Sir, we are very sorry.' I think a deal will be made, but it's got to be a fair deal."

Trump's comments come days after Carney backed the idea of Canada becoming the European Union's first associate member, a move he said would deepen economic ties with Europe and help ensure no single country could dominate Canada's markets.

In her annual State of the European Union address in Strasbourg on September 16, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Carney: “I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada being the first associate member of the EU.”

Her proposal would represent a change in EU practice.

“Associate membership” is not provided for in the bloc’s existing treaties, and the EU has historically resisted creating flexible categories between membership and an ordinary external partnership. Carney had previously sought to distinguish membership and a custom-built partnership.

“We’re not looking to become a member of the European Union,” he said on September 13. “What we are looking, and will begin discussions for, is a unique alliance between Canada and the European Union.”

“We share the same values, we have the same priorities and we have very complementary strengths,” he added.

Whether Canada's strategic pivot gains momentum may become clearer at the late-October EU-Canada summit, where leaders are expected to discuss closer economic cooperation. The outcomes could offer one of the first concrete signs of whether Carney's push to expand trade beyond North America is translating into new agreements and partnerships.

As relations with Washington have deteriorated, Carney is also pursuing a trade pact with India and repairing relations with China through an agreement that reduced tariffs on Canadian canola and opened Canada's market to a limited number of Chinese EVs.

“Partners are working with Canada because Canada’s predictable, reliable and principled in a world that’s anything but,” Carney said last week at the U.N. General Assembly.

“We have a strategy that, I believe, has already made our country stronger,” he added, “but we’ve only just begun.”

Todd Belt, a professor of political management at George Washington University, told Newsweek this month that he thinks the White House never saw Canada's pivots coming.

"Donald Trump underestimated Carney's resolve," he said. "He probably thought that since he was new in office, he would be able to boss him around. And that didn't happen."

Belt says Trump also failed to anticipate the shape retaliation would take.

"The Canadians would respond in kind, and they would do so in a fashion where they deliberately targeted Senate toss-up seats," he said, referring to states like Michigan, Ohio and Alaska.

America's trade leverage may diminish if Canada can offset losses from the U.S. market through stronger relationships with other partners, Belt said.

"If you disentangle yourself from your primary trade partner and you are able to replace the trade partner with other new trade partners, then that former trade partner has very little leverage," he added.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Sam Wilson.