Carney rejects claims he recanted Davos speech to Trump

Prime Minister Mark Carney is standing by the speech he made in Switzerland last week, despite claims from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that he walked it back during a phone call with President Donald Trump on Monday.

On Fox News, Bessent said Carney was “aggressively” recanting the statements he made at the World Economic Forum. Carney’s speech to the world’s business and political elite argued that the traditional rules-based international order is over, and that middle powers need to push back against larger ones using economic coercion. He never name-dropped Trump, but it was widely understood that Washington’s recent offensive tactics were the target. Carney says the pair did speak on the phone Monday, but they discussed a wide range of topics that notably did not include him walking back his comments in Davos.

In an effort to rely less on the United States, Ottawa and Beijing struck a “strategic partnership,” which would see decreased levies on some Chinese EVs in exchange for Beijing cutting tariffs on certain Canadian farm products. Initially, Trump thought the deal was a good thing, but later changed his tune. Tensions reached a boiling point over the weekend, when Trump took to social media to threaten a whopping 100 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods if Ottawa went ahead with the deal with China. He said if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘drop-off port’ for China to send goods into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.” He also reverted to calling Carney “governor.”

Trump’s renewed tariff threats come as the Canada–United States–Mexico free trade agreement is up for review, and Carney says he believes this latest ultimatum could be a tactic to better position Washington. Chinese officials say the trade agreement penned with Canada is not meant to undercut other countries, and Carney has clarified he has “never” considered pursuing a free trade agreement with China.