Canada’s Carney Told Trump He Meant What He Said in Davos Speech

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(Bloomberg) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he stood by his Davos warning about great-power coercion in a call with President Donald Trump, pushing back on US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s account of the conversation.

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Carney said Trump phoned him on Monday and they had a “very good conversation” that touched on on Ukraine, Venezuela and Arctic security. He stressed that his message to the president was consistent with the one he delivered in Switzerland last week.

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“To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. 

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“Canada was the first country to understand the change in US trade policy that he initiated, and we’re responding to that. We’re responding positively by building partnerships abroad, building at home and prepared to respond positively by building that new relationship with CUSMA. He understood that.” CUSMA is the acronym often used by Canadian officials for the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal Trump agreed to during his first term. 

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In his speech at the World Economic Forum, Carney declared the international rules‑based order a “fiction” that is now effectively dead, urging mid‑sized nations to build new systems of cooperation and resist economic coercion by aggressive superpowers.

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Asked by a reporter whether he walked back his Davos comments, Carney replied “no.”

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That contrasts with Bessent, who told Fox News that Carney was “aggressively walking back” his remarks during the call.

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Carney said he walked Trump through Canada’s push to diversify trade — “12 new deals, four continents, in six months” — including Ottawa’s new tariff-relief deal with China and the opportunity to advance USMCA 

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“This is the context of our discussion: what Canada is doing positively to build new partnerships around the world,” he said.

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He noted that Canada’s minister responsible for US trade, Dominic LeBlanc, had also recently spoken with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about the China deal and the path forward for USMCA talks. The North American trade agreement is due to be reviewed in July.

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Trump threatened 100% tariffs on Canadian goods on Saturday if Canada “makes a deal with China.” Carney has emphasized that Canada is not seeking a free-trade deal with Beijing and the recent agreement is focused on lowering certain tariff barriers. 

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