The U.S.-Anchored Global Trade System is Over: Canada
A sign seen at bus stops in Washington, DC., 2025. X/ @diazbriseno.
April 3, 2025 Hour: 1:41 pm
PM Carney will respond to Trump’s protectionism with specific countermeasures.
On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that the trade measures adopted by President Donald Trump have irreversibly fractured the global economy.
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“The U.S.-anchored global trade system, on which Canada has depended since the end of World War II—a system that, while not perfect, has helped our country’s prosperity for decades—is over,” he said.
“The old relationship of continued deepening integration with the United States is over… This is a tragedy, but it is also the new reality… The global economy is fundamentally different today from what it was yesterday,” Carney added.
In response to this new reality, Canada will introduce “carefully calibrated tariffs” and will challenge each U.S. tariff before courts and international bodies, the Canadian Prime Minister said, anticipating that his country will increase its trade relations with other “reliable” nations.
During a phone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Carney discussed “the importance of reliable partners working together to protect transatlantic security and to deepen economic ties.”
He also shared with Scholz his plan to fight the unjustified trade actions of the United States and to protect Canadian workers and businesses.
In retaliation for the enforcement of tariffs on the automotive sector, Canada will impose 25% tariffs on vehicles imported from the U.S. that do not comply with USMCA regulations.
The measure will not affect those coming from Mexico. The Canadian government estimates that these tariffs will generate around US$8 billion in revenue, which will go directly to workers affected by Trump’s trade war.
The Canadian Prime Minister also emphasized that Trump’s actions are “a clear violation of the trade agreements” of the free trade treaty between Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which the U.S. president himself signed during his first term (2017-2021).
Specifically, Carney pointed out that the United States and Canada had previously eliminated tariffs on the automotive sector, which has been one of the most integrated industries among the three North American countries for the past 60 years. “That era is over unless the United States and Canada agree on a new comprehensive approach,” he explained.
His words contrast with those spoken by Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, who viewed Trump’s decision not to impose new tariffs on USMCA partners positively and stated that the trilateral trade agreement “survived.”
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
