Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney enters the Lions pit on Tuesday with a long -awaited meeting in the oval office with the unpredictable Donald Trump.
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The interview in front of the cameras, scheduled for 11:45 am, could be tense, to hear the United States Minister on Commerce on Monday, Howard Lux.
Asked about the Fox Business channel about the possibility of a customs compromise, this very faithful ally of Donald Trump replied that it would be “very complicated”, describing Canada as a “communist regime” which “feeds [aux] expense ”of the United States.
“It will be a fascinating encounter,” he predicted.
Shortly before welcoming Mark Carney to the White House, the American president said that the “only substantial question” that he wanted to discuss with the Canadian Prime Minister concerned the “subsidies up to $ 200 billion” from Canada by the United States.
“We don’t need anything of them,” he wrote. They need everything from us. ”
Screen capture/Truth Social
Mark Carney, for his part, tried to lower expectations since his electoral victory a little over a week ago,
There will be no “white smoke” at the end of the meeting, he warned last Friday, using a topical metaphor in these times of conclave.
According to him, the old relationship between the two countries based on “growing integration” is “finished”, and it is a question of how the two countries “will cooperate in the future”.
Faced with him, the American president considers himself in a position of strength, after having suspended above Canada and Mexico the threat of generalized customs duties of 25%, in addition to the sectoral taxes which he has already imposed, in particular on steel and aluminum.
Very nice
“I imagine he wants to conclude an agreement,” said Donald Trump on Monday about his visitor.
Last week, he described Mr. Carney “very sympathetic man”, an incomparably more sympathetic tone than that reserved for former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for whom the republican billionaire has a ferocious antipathy.
Mark Carney has its delicate negotiation position last week.
“My government will fight to get the best (commercial) agreement. It will take the necessary time, but no more, “said Prime Minister, a former central banker experienced in crisis management, which, for example, held the rudder of the Bank of England in the Brexit storm.
Technocrat without campaign experience, Mark Carney owes his election to Donald Trump.
Since his return to power, the latter has launched a particularly violent political attacks against Canada, by repeating that the country was doomed to become the 51st US state.
“This is a very important moment for (the new Canadian leader), since he hammered during the campaign he could face Mr. Trump,” Geneviève Tellier, political scientist at the University of Ottawa, told AFP.
Conclude
“It must be fine to leave a chance for the future,” said the political scientist, for whom the worst scenario would be a public altercation such as that having opposed Donald Trump to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the Oval office.
The new Prime Minister, with a measured temperament and prudent expression, has a very different personality from that of the US eruptive president, but also that, very extroverted, by Justin Trudeau.
The United States and Canada are bound by a free trade agreement concluded during the first term of Donald Trump, which, according to some analysts, could be reviewed.
But renegotiating the text would be a long and complicated process not very compatible with the will of the American president to quickly conclude spectacular commercial deals.
The summit meeting between the two leaders will also serve as a barometer before the G7 summit, planned in Canada in June, bringing together the leaders of the country particularly jostled by Donald Trump since his return to power.
The group of 7 brings together Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The European Union is also represented there.
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