Political news and analysis for Canadians
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 major economies are meeting for two days in Asheville, North Carolina. With the United States holding the rotating G20 presidency, Washington is trying to rally partners towards greater economic pressure on Iran and find ways to boost growth. But the unexpected attendance of the Russian finance minister drew fierce criticism.
KYIV Post: US Treasury Secretary Says Russia’s G20 Presence Did Not Disrupt Talks Despite EU Anger
Canada has become the transatlantic partner of choice as geopolitical uncertainties make trust the most valuable commodity in international relations, Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Tuesday.
“What the world needs and wants today is trust. That’s the most sought-after commodity here, and I think Canada is seen as a trusted partner, I often say the transatlantic partner of choice,” he told Reuters in an interview before meeting U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the sidelines of the G20 gathering of finance ministers and central bankers in Asheville, North Carolina.
Canada was hit last month by U.S. tariffs of 50% on some C$28 billion of Canadian goods after the neighbours did not agree on new trade deal, prompting Ottawa to set dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs that come into effect next a week.
A Group of 20 joint statement reflecting U.S. priorities on reducing global imbalances and sovereign debt restructurings may not be possible, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs Erin Browne told Reuters.
“We’ve been working really hard on a communiqué, but we want to make sure that it reflects U.S. interests and America First priorities, and if we are unable to come to a conclusion, we’re comfortable with that,” Browne said, adding that the alternative would be to issue a chair’s statement on the discussions.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters on Tuesday that the U.S. needs to start being serious and ‘stop throwing shade’ before talks on a possible trade deal with Canada can restart.
Globe and Mail: Prime Minister Carney says U.S. should ‘stop throwing shade’ in trade talks
Paul Krugman: So the Venezuela venture had nothing to do with democracy or freedom. It seems safe to say that it had nothing to do with crime or terrorism, which were the other excuses the administration offered. What happened in Venezuela was simply an old-fashioned, 19th-century-style resource grab, a sort of Caribbean version of the Belgian Congo.
In one stroke, Trump has just validated everything the Latin American left has ever said about U.S. imperialism. And we’ll be paying for that, diplomatically and strategically, for decades to come.
Now, it’s highly unlikely that this deal will hold. By all accounts, just about every faction in Venezuelan politics except the current ruling clique hates the deal. Since it will take years, maybe even decades, to realize the putative benefits of oil-company investments in Venezuela, how likely is it that whoever is running that country in the future will want to honor Trump’s terms? What are the odds that Venezuela will eventually expropriate U.S. oil-company investments? Or do we imagine a future in which the U.S. military maintains a permanent occupation of Venezuela, using force to prop up a puppet government the nation’s citizens hate?
MapQuest, which was openly dismissive of the president’s 27 August executive order directing federal agencies to refer to the rebranding of “Lake Ontario” amid a trade war with Canada, leapfrogged rivals Google Maps and Apple Maps to top the most-downloaded list, as first reported by TechCrunch.
The app held the No 1 spot on Apple’s App Store as of Tuesday morning, The Guardian confirmed.
Google quickly capitulated to Trump’s demand, showing the rebranded name to US customers, while Apple is reportedly mulling a decision under pressure from the White House to make the same change.
But MapQuest, a 30-year-old company that bills itself as “the OG” (original) of the internet mapping era, appears to have been rewarded for standing firm, writes Richard Luscombe in The Guardian.
Washington Post: Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again / Archived
CBC Power & Politics: The Power Panel discusses the president’s latest comments.
A group of 11 European Union countries has joined forces to demand an end to the “obstructive” vetoes that have paralysed the bloc’s external action in recent years, arguing that the principle of sincere cooperation must take precedence, reports Euronews.
“The Union’s culture of consensus is an important source of its legitimacy. Therefore, we continue to strive for consensus wherever possible,” the countries say in a letter addressed to High Representative Kaja Kallas and seen by Euronews.
Sam Freedman: “The problem with writing about Donald Trump is that one can expend an enormous amount of energy trying to explain moves he doesn’t understand himself.”
[…]
“While other states find Trump hard to deal with, they have figured out that the best way to deal with him is through a combination of flattery, pretend compliance and waiting him out. As he neither cares about outcomes nor can pay attention to anything for more than a few weeks, he can be effectively managed this way. To justify his focus on Madman Theory, Boys goes out of his way to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, at great cost to his broader argument. In the discussion of tariffs, he accepts that the president’s decision to impose them on Canada was “in part, to stem the flow of fentanyl across the northern border” – even though this is an obvious nonsense. Less than 1 per cent of illicit fentanyl arriving in the US comes via Canada.”
[…]
“While Trump is president, there won’t be coherence in US foreign policy, beyond the occasional reassertion of his long-standing bugbears. The world will keep trying to work around him, probably successfully. The bigger question is what happens next.”
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