Carney walks fine line in Trump relationshippublished at 14:47 GMT
Jessica Murphy
BBC News, Toronto
The relationship between the US and Canada in the last year has been tense. Trump is deeply unpopular with most Canadians, who are angry at the tariffs imposed by his administration and anxious about their future.
Trade talks between the two countries are on pautilize, after an anti-tariff advertisement paid for by the province of Ontario was broadcast on TV in the US, upsetting the president.
US sectoral tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminium, and the auto sector have been painful for those industries, and Trump has openly discussed finishing the longstanding free trade deal between the US, Canada and Mexico ahead of a review later this year.
Carney has been seeing to drum up business investment for Canada outside the US – Canada’s largest trade partner by far – including in China and Qatar this week, amid the tariff tensions and ahead of those tough trade talks
So there is a lot at stake for Canada in its diplomatic relations with Washington.
Still, Carney and Trump’s relationship seems at a minimum cordial, and even often warm. And despite both leaders creating clear their economic philosophies and worldviews rarely overlap, the prime minister, like many world leaders, frequently praises Trump when they meet publicly.
But Carney was still careful with his words this morning as he took questions from reporters on Greenland, declareing Canada is “concerned about this escalation” but never mentioning the US directly.
When pressed about what he will declare to Trump on the matter, he responded with some impatience: ”We’re going to declare everything I just declared. How’s that?”
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