Scott Bessent used a CNBC interview to warn Mark Carney against escalating tensions with Washington at a moment when the United States, Canada and Mexico are preparing for a formal review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the 2020 trade pact intended to shield Canada from the heaviest effects of President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda. Bessent said Carney’s recent public comments about U.S. trade policy could “backfire” as that review period gets closer.
In the interview, Bessent urged Carney to avoid what he framed as an unhelpful political posture ahead of the USMCA process. “I would not pick a fight going into USMCA to score some cheap political points — either you’re working for your own political career or you’re working for the Canadian people,” Bessent said, according to the CNBC remarks cited in the report.
Bessent also drew on Carney’s career history, saying he has “seen what happens when a technocrat tries to pivot and become a politician,” adding, “It never really works out well.” The warning came after Carney had taken a prominent role in public remarks that touched on coercion in global economic policy and was later caught up in exchanges with Trump and Bessent over related trade issues.
Carney’s comments followed a high-profile speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he condemned economic coercion by great powers toward smaller countries. After that speech, the report said Carney “sparred” with Trump and Bessent over issues related to trade policy.
Trump has also escalated pressure tied to Canada’s trade direction. The report said Trump threatened Saturday to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada over a trade deal Carney is pursuing with Beijing. The USMCA agreement signed in 2020 during Trump’s first term has offered a framework for North American trade, but the report said the president has recently expressed indifference toward it, including saying earlier this month, “I don’t really care about it.”
Bessent said the U.S. and Carney spoke on Monday. After that call, Bessent told Fox News that Carney “was very aggressively walking back some of the unfortunate remarks he made at Davos,” according to the report. But Carney offered a different account the following day.
“To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” Carney told reporters. The exchange underscored how Carney’s outreach to global audiences on trade and coercion can collide with U.S. officials’ warnings as the USMCA review period nears.
In the CNBC interview, Bessent said he still expected negotiations could produce a workable outcome, telling viewers, “I think we will end up in a good place — may not be a straight line.”