The U.S. announced a new wave of sanctions on Iran and has promised to sanction any countries trading with it – including China. It also comes as the Americans deepen their trade war with Canada.
France 24:
Category: Trade (Page 13 of 19)
Beijing noticed when Canada “stood firm” on the position that its relations with third countries were a matter of national sovereignty.
Walking away from the negotiating table, Canada said that the US had introduced, among other measures, efforts to restrict its authority to make independent trade agreements.
Patrick Leblond: A deal would have prevented further economic woes imposed on Canada in the short run. But what matters is that the Carney government didn’t give in to the Trump administration’s economic coercion.
Concessions were made during the negotiations but not to the point of increasing our long-term dependence on the U.S. or confirming to the Americans that they can threaten us successfully. That was the right move. Otherwise, the Americans would soon be back for more.
Hours after the US sanctioned dozens of Chinese entities and threatened to target an unspecified “major financial institution” for its dealings with Tehran, Beijing responded by saying its relationship with Iran “should not be disrupted or undermined.” China will take “all necessary measures” to safeguard its interests, Bloomberg reports.
The response underscores the risk of another clash between the superpowers as Trump promotes an economic onslaught against Iran in a bid to pressure the Islamic Republic into a deal.
Trump is moving toward levying a new tariff on China that would penalize the world’s second-largest economy for, what the U.S. administration claims, flooding the global market with underpriced goods, reports Aamer Madhani at AP.
Trump is considering setting the new tariff at 7.5%, a level administration officials believe would not endanger the one-year trade truce between Washington and Beijing or a planned White House meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to take place in late September.
Poll after poll shows Canadians across the political spectrum are willing to accept those impacts in order to stand up to the U.S. government.
The opposite is true in the U.S., where even many in the president’s own party oppose Trump’s trade agenda — particularly his tariffs on Canada, report Daniel Desrochers, Zi-Ann Lum, Oliver Ward and Ari Hawkins at Politico. And unlike Carney, the U.S. president faces a voter referendum in November, in the form of midterm elections.
The alliance that Sheinbaum and Carney sealed a year ago to advance the USMCA does not appear to have been damaged by Canada’s split with the United States, reports Sonia Corona at El País.
The Canadian prime minister called the Mexican president on the eve of the end of his talks with Washington. “They underscored the importance of renewing the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement as soon as possible to provide greater certainty for North American businesses and workers,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement last Thursday night, without giving details on whether the battle between Canada and the United States figured in the conversation. Throughout the year Canada and Mexico have avoided getting in each other’s way to push the USMCA forward. However, Ottawa has borne more of Trump’s pressure, who has attacked the country and its leaders directly. “Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” was his latest insult.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is in a war of words with President Trump as trade tensions escalate between Canada and the U.S., reports Rob Ferguson and Robert Benzie at the Toronto Star.
After Ford said Monday that Trump “can kiss my ass” for threatening 50% tariffs on Canadian-made vehicles going stateside starting in January, the president lashed out at the premier and Prime Minister Mark Carney on social media.
Vermont Senator Peter Welch says Prime Minister Mark Carney is justified in fighting back.
CBC’s Power & Politics asks the person leading Canada’s negotiations, Minister for Canada-U.S. Trade Dominic LeBlanc what would it take to get back to trade talks?
