It came hours after French leader Emmanuel Macron attacked Trump’s trade strategy, which includes the threat of further tariffs on European nations unless the US is allowed to acquire Greenland, the huge Arctic island that’s part of Denmark.
Trump posted a photo of a map that shows both Greenland and Canada covered by the American flag.
Faced with strong-arm tactics by larger nations, “there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety,” Carney said. “It won’t.”
“Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu,” the Prime Minister told the summit.
Canada and Mexico are also preparing for negotiations with the White House on the North American trade pact, and American officials have publicly mused about breaking up that accord and pursuing bilateral talks instead.
Trump is scheduled to attend the summit tomorrow, the same day Carney is leaving. It’s not yet known if the two leaders will cross paths.
‘Weapon of coercion’
In Davos, Carney called on world leaders and companies to start “naming reality”.
He cited a famous essay from Czech dissident Vaclav Havel that described how the communist system sustained itself because people were willing to lie to each other, and to themselves, about its realities.
World leaders shouldn’t fall into that same trap when talking about the current geopolitical landscape, Carney said.
“Stop invoking the ‘rules-based international order’ as though it still functions as advertised,” Carney said.
“Call the system what it is: a period where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion.”
He alluded to a “strategic partnership” he signed last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in which China agreed to reduce tariffs on Canadian agriculture products while Canada eased levies on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
“We are engaging broadly, strategically, with open eyes,” he said in the Davos speech. “We actively take on the world as it is, not wait for the world as we wish it to be.”
Canada is also working on new trade and security partnerships with India, Qatar, Thailand, the Philippines, and trade alliances including Mercosur and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he said.
He pointed to Canada’s moves to dramatically hike defence spending and develop major new energy and trade infrastructure projects.
“We should not allow the rise of hard power to blind us to the fact that the power of legitimacy, integrity and rules will remain strong - if we choose to wield it together,” he said.
He listed Canada’s strategic advantages, including large reserves of conventional energy and critical minerals.
“Our pension funds are amongst the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors,” he said. “We have capital, talent and a government with the immense fiscal capacity to act decisively.”
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