Mark Carney told reporters in Ottawa that he did not retract comments he made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, disputing a U.S. claim that he “aggressively” walked them back during a call with President Donald Trump.
Carney said he rolled his eyes at U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s characterization of what happened Monday, when Bessent told Fox News that the Canadian leader had changed course after the phone conversation. “To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” Carney said as he arrived for a Cabinet meeting, adding: “Canada was the first country to understand the change in U.S. trade policy that he initiated, and we’re responding to that.”
Carney said the call lasted about half an hour and that he explained Canada’s approach to China to Trump. He said, “I explained to him our arrangement with China. I explained to him what we’re doing — 12 new deals, four continents, in six months,” and that Trump “was impressed.”
The dispute comes after Carney used his Davos remarks to condemn economic coercion by great powers toward smaller countries, without naming Trump. Those comments drew praise and attention at the meeting, including attention that Carney’s remarks upstaged Trump at Davos. In Parliament on Tuesday, Carney also said: “The world has changed, Washington has changed. There is almost nothing normal in the U.S. now and that’s the truth,” speaking in French.
Carney’s response was also aimed at a broader set of tensions between Canada and Trump. Trump threatened this past weekend to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if Canada proceeded with a trade deal with Beijing, though Carney said Canada has no interest in negotiating a comprehensive trade deal with China. Carney said he plans to travel to India, Australia and other countries to diversify trade away from the United States, which takes more than 75% of Canada’s exports.
Carney said his recent agreement with China cuts tariffs that were recently imposed on a few sectors, positioning the effort as selective rather than a wholesale shift. The AP report also cited Canada’s minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, Dominic LeBlanc, who compared Canada’s China arrangement to a past Trump deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea last summer that involved U.S. tariff cuts alongside changes that allowed rare earth exports and resumed paused purchases of U.S. soy.
The developing trade conflict sits alongside other frictions that have added to alarm in Ottawa, including Trump’s Greenland push. The AP report said the pressure strained the NATO alliance and that Canada shares a 3,000-kilometer maritime border with Greenland in the Arctic. It also said Trump has suggested Canada could be absorbed into the United States and posted an altered image showing Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
Carney also said he raised issues beyond trade in the Trump call, including Ukraine, Venezuela and Arctic security. Bessent, speaking on Fox News, argued that Canada is fundamentally tied to the United States and said Canada should stop what he described as Carney’s “globalist agenda,” adding: “Of course, Canada depends on the U.S. … There’s much more north-south trade than there could ever be east-west trade.”
Carney said the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is up for renewal this year and set a goal for Canada to double its non-U.S. exports in the next decade. He also described himself in Davos as part of a movement to link up countries that seek to counter the United States under Trump, saying in his speech: “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.”
Bessent’s statement and Carney’s response leave both governments grappling with how far Trump is willing to use tariffs to steer Canada’s trade choices as Carney presses to build new commercial partnerships elsewhere.