If Trump is reduced Canada in conversation with Prime Minister Carney, the relationship between the countries can quickly deteriorate

« A very nice gentleman« , US President Donald Trump called Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney last week. The two leaders spoke to each other by telephone after the election victory of the ruling Liberal Party of Carney, last Monday. » He could not have been nicer, « Trump told Journalists in the White House.

It is a remarkable change of tone with regard to Canadian Prime Minister, after Trump disgraced the predecessor of Carney, Justin Trudeau, as « governor » of a « 51st state » of the United States. Trumps repeatedly pronounced wish to annex Canada has put a lot of bad blood with the northern neighbors – as well as the trade war he has unleashed with the neighboring country, one of the most important traders of the US.

Carney, a former president of the Canadian Central Bank and of the British Central Bank, has been chosen by the Canadians to cope with Trumps threats. He is hurrying with that: Tuesday he will visit Trump in the White House. « It is important to start a conversation immediately, » said Carney on Friday.

The deployment is unprecedentedly high. Carney campaigned as an ‘anti-Trump’: an experienced representative of the liberal world order, which Canada can guide through the Trump storm. With that he is directly at the forefront of Western leaders who want to counterbalance to the US government. At the same time, with his background in the financial world, Trump may be better than Trudeau, a standard -bearer from the left.

‘No white smoke’

For Carney, the baptism of fire may be a chance to put on the crucial relationship of Canada with the US, which has derailed in recent months, again. He talks to Trump about the taxes that the president has set for some Canadian imports and about the safety relationship of the two neighboring countries, who have been working closely for decades in the field of continental defense.

A goal of Canada is to get the taxes off the table and to come to a new trade treaty, now that Trump is the USMCA treaty, the free trade agreement of Canada, the United States and Mexico, although in his first term he himself closed it with both neighboring countries, as successor to the decaden-old North American. A new agreement will not be settled on Tuesday – expects « no white smoke, » Carney said. But an appointment to talk about that would be a good start.

Carney has an opportunity to put Canada’s crucial relationship back on track

Possibly the friendlier tone that Trump started last week – but that is not sure at all. Although the president has started less often in recent weeks about the ’51st state’ than earlier this year, he did not stop. On Sunday he said during an interview with the American channel NBC that he will continue to insist – although he considers it « very unlikely » that the US would ever annex Canada with military means.

As far as Carney is concerned, the starting position is that Trump must respect the sovereignty of Canada. If Trump starts the ’51st state’ again in front of the cameras on Tuesday, Carney will have no choice but to go against it.

Disastrous

Conversely, Carney commented on Trump and the US during the Ferm campaign. « President Trump tries to break us so that America can possess us, » he says regularly. « That will never happen. » After his election victory, Carney repeated his opinion that « our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on increasing integration, is over ». He is approaching other allies, including the United Kingdom and France.

The White House knows this. An altercation with Trump and members of his government, as the Ukrainian President Volodyymyr Zensky came in February, would be at least as disastrous for Carney as being overrumed by Trump.

Critics therefore do not think it is a good idea of ​​Carney to meet Trump – on his site, without Trump having met the condition that he respects the sovereignty of Canada. According to them, Carney had done better to wait with a meeting, such as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

As far as Carney is concerned, the step within an approach to take action as quickly as possible with a solid policy agenda. Although he won the elections convincingly, the liberals just did not get a majority in parliament, which would have meant that he was safe for four years. Now his government is running the risk of falling before that time. « I went into politics to achieve things, » he said on Friday. He doesn’t have time to lose.

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