Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday he told U.S. President Donald Trump personally that he meant what he said in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
Carney said Trump called him on Monday and they had a wide-ranging conversation about global events including in Venezuela and Ukraine. Carney also said he told the president Canada was the first country to "understand" the change in U.S. trade policy and that Ottawa is now adjusting to the shift.
"I meant what I said in Davos. It was clear it was a broader set of issues, that Canada was the first country to understand the change in U.S. trade policy that he had initiated, and we're responding to that," Carney said on his way into a cabinet meeting.
"We're responding positively by building partnerships abroad, we're responding positively by building at home. And we are prepared to respond positively by building that new relationship through (the continental trade deal). He understood that and it was a good conversation."
During his speech in Davos, Carney called on middle powers to band together to counteract the effect of "great powers" that are trying to expand their influence through economic coercion.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told American media outlet Fox News on Monday he was in the room during the call and said Carney was "aggressively walking back" his comments at Davos.
"Of course, Canada depends on the U.S.," he said. "There's much more north-south trade than there could ever be east-west trade."
Carney shook his head and said "no" when asked if he had taken back his Davos comments.
On Fox News, Bessent said Carney should stop trying to "push his own globalist agenda."
The prime minister told reporters he explained to Trump Canada's recent tariff deal with China and Ottawa's broader strategy to diversify trade.
"I explained what we're doing — 12 new deals on four continents in six months, he was impressed — and what we intend to do going forward," Carney said.
Trump threatened last week to impose 100 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports if Canada strikes a trade deal with China.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said it's "unacceptable" that Canadians learned about the call between Carney and Trump through American media.
In a statement posted on social media, Chong said it's in the public interest for the Prime Minister's Office to share a public summary when these calls happen, as it does with with other conversations between Carney and world leaders.
"Canadians deserve the truth," Chong wrote.
The last time the PMO published a summary of a conversation between Carney and Trump was Aug. 21. Four summaries have been released by the PMO detailing conversations between Carney and Trump, plus one of a meeting with U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Monday he spoke with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and told him that Canada is not pursuing a free trade deal with China.
LeBlanc said the agreement with China is meant to resolve specific tariff issues, similar to action taken by the U.S. government last year on soybeans.
Carney said the call with Trump was also about the review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on free trade, or CUSMA, which is to begin in earnest this year.
The prime minister said he also spoke to Trump about the situations in Ukraine and Venezuela, and about Arctic security, but he did not share details on how those talks went.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
