Carney tells Trump that Canada ‘will not be for sale, ever’

Mark Carney told Donald Trump that Canada is “not for sale”, because the president increased the prospect that the country became the 51st American state and the Prime Minister welcomed in the White House.

Carney won the elections last month that promised to “stand up” to Trump, who has imposed rates on some Canadian products and sometimes talks about annexing the country.

The former central banker responded with a strong but measured tone after the president had suggested a “wonderful marriage” to include Canada in the US.

Despite a tense relationship that has recently been between the once expressed neighbors, the two men also praised each other in what was a largely cordial Oval Office meeting.

Trump has imposed general rates of 25% on Canada and Mexico and sector -specific import taxes on cars, some of which have been suspended pending negotiations.

The US president, who accuses Canada of it, does not do enough to stop the flow of Fentanyl South, has raised similar tasks on steel and aluminum.

The meeting on Tuesday was the first time that the two had met since Carney won the general elections of Canada on April 28, a victory that many in that country have promised Trump.

But the two leaders started with warm words, where Trump described Carney as “a very talented person”.

He also greeted the election profit of his guest as “one of the biggest comebacks in the history of politics, perhaps even bigger than mine”.

Carney said that Trump was a “transformational president”, with “a ruthless focus on the American employee, securing your border and securing the world” and said he “had revived” NATO.

But friction arose when Trump again argued that Canada would be better off as part of the US.

Carney was prepared with a carefully formulated response.

“As you know from real estate, there are a few places that are never for sale,” he told real estate magnate Trump, where Canada was compared to the Oval Office itself and the Great Britain in Buckingham Palace.

“After having met the owners of Canada in the course of the campaign in recent months, it is not for sale. Will never be for sale.”

Trump replied, “Never say never.”

The American leader followed his own red line when a journalist in the Oval office asked if Carney could say something to convince him to raise rates.

“No,” he replied. “It’s just the way it is.”

“This was a very friendly conversation,” he added. “But we want to make our own cars.”

Trump again argued that the US subsidized the army of Canada and did not need Canadian goods such as aluminum and steel.

He said he and Carney would discuss “heavy points” during their meeting, but “regardless of everything, we will become friends with Canada”.

Trump also criticized the predecessor of his visitor, Justin Trudeau, with whom he had an opponent.

Yet he said that the meeting with Carney contrasted in stark contrast with another “blow -up” of the Oval Office – a reference to a disastrous visit from the Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zensky in February.

During a later press conference at the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC, Carney said that he “pressed the case” to have Trump about the lifting of rates, and found “willing to have that negotiation”.

“I think that is the most important thing. That does not assume the outcome of the negotiation,” Carney added. “There will be Zigs and Zags. Difficult aspects. But the prospect is there.”

Carney did not speculate about timing and only said that both leaders and their teams would speak again in the coming weeks.

Moreover, Carney said he asked again that Trump stopped calling on Canada to become an American state. He added that he finds it important to distinguish between “wish and reality”.

“He is the president. He is his own person, “said Carney. “He understands that we have a negotiation between sovereign nations.”

During the Canada election campaign, Carney argued that he was the leader who could fight the “betrayal” of Trump and go back against the American threats for the economy and sovereignty of Canada.

In his victory speech, the liberal leader went so far to say that the previously tight American Canadian relationship was “over” and that Canadians “had to imagine our economy again fundamentally” in the Trump era.

More than $ 760 billion (£ 570 billion) in goods flowed between Canada and the US last year. Canada is the second largest individual trading partner of the US Na Mexico and the largest export market for American goods.