Mark Carney may have a winking problem: Why PM's not-so subtle habit is risky on the world stage
At the recent G7 leader's summit, for example, after lamenting Russia's absence, Trump was answering a question about what was holding up a trade deal with Canada. 'I have a tariff concept,' he said. 'Mark has a different concept, which is something that some people like.'
Just then, at this awkward backhand compliment, Carney, who had been watching Trump speak, turned his head slightly toward someone behind the camera and winked with his left eye, which pulled the corner of his lip up into the briefest hint of a smile that threatened to become a smirk.
Soon after, Trump was leaving the summit and talking to the media alongside Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron. Just as Trump said they got a lot done, including a U.S. trade deal with the U.K., Carney looked away from Trump toward Macron and winked, this time with his right eye, but with the same risky ripple of humour crossing his face.
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Winnipeg Free Press
15 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump and GOP target ballots arriving after Election Day that delay counts and feed conspiracy fears
ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump and other Republicans have long criticized states that take weeks to count their ballots after Election Day. This year has seen a flurry of activity to address it. Part of Trump's executive order on elections, signed in March but held up by lawsuits, takes aim at one of the main reasons for late vote counts: Many states allow mailed ballots to be counted even if they arrive after Election Day. The U.S. Supreme Court last month said it would consider whether a challenge in Illinois can proceed in a case that is among several Republican-backed lawsuits seeking to impose an Election Day deadline for mail ballots. At least three states — Kansas, North Dakota and Utah — passed legislation this year that eliminated a grace period for receiving mailed ballots, saying they now need to be in by Election Day. Even in California, where weekslong vote counting is a frequent source of frustration and a target of Republican criticism, a bill attempting to speed up the process is moving through the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Order asserts federal law prohibits counting late ballots The ballot deadline section of Trump's wide-ranging executive order relies on an interpretation of federal law that establishes Election Day for federal elections. He argues this means all ballots must be received by that date. 'This is like allowing persons who arrive 3 days after Election Day, perhaps after a winner has been declared, to vote in person at a former voting precinct, which would be absurd,' the executive order states. It follows a pattern for the president, who has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of such ballots even though there is no evidence they are the source of widespread fraud. The issue is tied closely to his complaints about how long it takes to count ballots, his desire for results on election night and his false claims that overnight 'dumps' of vote counts point to a rigged election in 2020, when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. But ballots received after Election Day, in addition to being signed and dated by the voter, must be postmarked by the U.S. Postal Service indicating they were completed and dropped off on or before the final day of voting. Accepting late-arriving ballots has not been a partisan issue historically. States as different as California and Mississippi allow them, while Colorado and Indiana do not. 'There is nothing unreliable or insecure about a ballot that comes back after Election Day,' said Steve Simon, the chief election official in Minnesota, which has an Election Day deadline. In his executive order, most of which is paused by the courts, Trump directs the attorney general to 'take all necessary action' to enforce federal law against states that include late-arriving ballots in their final counts for federal elections. He also directs the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to condition federal funding on compliance. Trump's rhetoric motivates Republican states Republicans in five states have passed legislation since the 2020 election moving the mail ballot deadline to Election Day, according to the Voting Rights Lab, which tracks election legislation. Earlier this year, GOP lawmakers in Kansas ended the state's practice of accepting mail ballots up to three days after Election Day, a change that will take effect for next year's midterms. Problems with mail delivery had prompted Kansas to add the grace period in 2017. Kansas state Sen. Mike Thompson, a Republican who chairs the committee that handles election legislation, compared the grace period to giving a football team extra chances to score after the game clock expires. 'We need this uniform end to the election just so that we know that all voters are operating on the same time frame,' he said. A history of complaints in California California has long been a source of complaints about the amount of time it takes for ballots to be counted and winners declared. 'The rest of the country shouldn't have to wait on California to know the results of the elections,' U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the Committee on House Administration, said during an April hearing. He said California's 'lax election laws' were to blame for the delays. The nation's most populous state has the largest number of registered voters in the country, some 22.9 million, which is roughly equivalent to the number of voters in Florida and Georgia combined. California also has embraced universal mail voting, which means every registered voter automatically receives a ballot in the mail for each election. The deadline for election offices to receive completed ballots is seven days after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by then. A survey of some 35,000 Los Angeles County voters during last fall's election found that 40% waited until Election Day to return their ballot. Election officials say the exhaustive process for reviewing and counting mail ballots combined with a large percentage of voters waiting until the last minute makes it impossible for all results to be available on election night. California Democrats consider changes to speed the count Under state law, election officials in California have 30 days to count ballots, conduct a postelection review and certify the results. Dean Logan, Los Angeles County's chief election official, told Congress in May that his team counted nearly 97% of the 3.8 million ballots cast within a week of Election Day in 2024. Jesse Salinas, president of the state clerks' association, said his staff in Yolo County, near Sacramento, already works 16-hour days, seven days a week before and after an election. Assemblyman Marc Berman introduced legislation that would keep the state's 30-day certification period but require county election officials to finish counting most ballots within 13 days after the election. They would be required to notify the state if they weren't going to meet that deadline and give a reason. 'I don't think that we can stick our heads in the sand and pretend like these conspiracies aren't out there and that this lack of confidence doesn't exist, in particular among Republican voters in California,' said Berman, a Democrat. 'There are certain good government things that we can do to strengthen our election system.' He acknowledged that many counties already meet the 13-day deadline in his bill, which awaits consideration in the Senate. 'My hope is that this will strengthen people's confidence in their election system and their democracy by having some of those benchmarks and just making it very clear for folks when different results will be available,' Berman said. ___ Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
US tariffs on European goods threaten to shake up the world's largest 2-way trade relationship
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — America's largest trade partner, the European Union, is among the entities awaiting word Monday on whether U.S. President Donald Trump will impose punishing tariffs on their goods, a move economists have warned would have repercussions for companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. Trump imposed a 20% import tax on all EU-made products in early April as part of a set of tariffs targeting countries with which the United States has a trade imbalance. Hours after the nation-specific duties took effect, he put them on hold until July 9 at a standard rate of 10% to quiet financial markets and allow time for negotiations. Expressing displeasure the EU's stance in trade talks, however, the president said he would jack up the tariff rate for European exports to 50%. A rate that high could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals much more expensive in the U.S. The EU, whose 27 member nations operate as a single economic bloc, said its leaders hoped to strike a deal with the Trump administration. Without one, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes. Here are important things to know about trade between the United States and the European Union. US-EU trade is enormous A lot of money is at stake in the trade talks. The EU's executive commission describes the trade between the U.S. and the EU as 'the most important commercial relationship in the world.' The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat. The biggest U.S. export to Europe is crude oil, followed by pharmaceuticals, aircraft, automobiles, and medical and diagnostic equipment. Europe's biggest exports to the U.S. are pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments, and wine and spirits. EU sells more to the US than vice versa Trump has complained about the EU's 198 billion-euro ($233 billion) trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more stuff from European businesses than the other way around. However, American companies fill some of the gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings, and legal and financial services. The U.S. services surplus took the nation's trade deficit with the EU down to 50 billion euros ($59 billion), which represents less than 3% of overall U.S.-EU trade. What are the issues dividing the two sides? Before Trump returned to office, the U.S. and the EU maintained a generally cooperative trade relationship and low tariff levels on both sides. The U.S. rate averaged 1.47% for European goods, while the EU's averaged 1.35% for American products. But the White House has taken a much less friendly posture toward the longstanding U.S. ally since February. Along with the fluctuating tariff rate on European goods Trump has floated, the EU has been subject to his administration's 50% tariff on steel and aluminum and a 25% tax on imported automobiles and parts. Trump administration officials have raised a slew of issues they want to see addressed, including agricultural barriers such as EU health regulations that include bans on chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef. Trump has also criticized Europe's value-added taxes, which EU countries levy at the point of sale this year at rates of 17% to 27%. But many economists see VAT as trade-neutral since they apply to domestic goods and services as well as imported ones. Because national governments set the taxes through legislation, the EU has said they aren't on the table during trade negotiations. 'On the thorny issues of regulations, consumer standards and taxes, the EU and its member states cannot give much ground,' Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Germany's Berenberg bank, said. 'They cannot change the way they run the EU's vast internal market according to U.S. demands, which are often rooted in a faulty understanding of how the EU works.' What are potential impacts of higher tariffs? Economists and companies say higher tariffs will mean higher prices for U.S. consumers on imported goods. Importers must decide how much of the extra tax costs to absorb through lower profits and how much to pass on to customers. Mercedes-Benz dealers in the US. have said they are holding the line on 2025 model year prices 'until further notice.' The German automaker has a partial tariff shield because it makes 35% of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the U.S. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but the company said it expects prices to undergo 'significant increases' in coming years. Simon Hunt, CEO of Italian wine and spirits producer Campari Group, told investment analysts that prices could increase for some products or stay the same depending what rival companies do. If competitors raise prices, the company might decide to hold its prices on Skyy vodka or Aperol aperitif to gain market share, Hunt said. Trump has argued that making it more difficult for foreign companies to sell in the U.S. is a way to stimulate a revival of American manufacturing. Many companies have dismissed the idea or said it would take years to yield positive economic benefits. However, some corporations have proved willing to shift some production stateside. France-based luxury group LVMH, whose brands include Tiffany & Co., Luis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Moet & Chandon, could move some production to the United States, billionaire CEO Bernaud Arnault said at the company's annual meeting in April. Arnault, who attended Trump's inauguration, has urged Europe to reach a deal based on reciprocal concessions. 'If we end up with high tariffs, … we will be forced to increase our U.S.-based production to avoid tariffs,' Arnault said. 'And if Europe fails to negotiate intelligently, that will be the consequence for many companies. … It will be the fault of Brussels, if it comes to that.' Many expect Trump to drop his most drastic demands Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Some forecasts indicate the U.S. economy would be more at risk if the negotiations fail. Without a deal, the EU would lose 0.3% of its gross domestic product and U.S. GDP would fall 0.7%, if Trump slaps imported goods from Europe with tariffs of 10% to 25%, according to a research review by Bruegel, a think tank in Brussels. Given the complexity of some of the issues, the two sides may arrive only at a framework deal before Wednesday's deadline. That would likely leave a 10% base tariff, as well as the auto, steel and aluminum tariffs in place until details of a formal trade agreement are ironed out. The most likely outcome of the trade talks is that 'the U.S. will agree to deals in which it takes back its worst threats of 'retaliatory' tariffs well beyond 10%,' Schmieding said. 'However, the road to get there could be rocky.' The U.S. offering exemptions for some goods might smooth the path to a deal. The EU could offer to ease some regulations that the White House views as trade barriers. 'While Trump might be able to sell such an outcome as a 'win' for him, the ultimate victims of his protectionism would, of course, be mostly the U.S. consumers,' Schmieding said.
National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
Kelly McParland: EV mandate another fanciful Trudeau plan Carney forced to reckon with
Article content There's no doubt automakers have a serious threat on their hands. The Trump administration is putting a vigorous squeeze on the industry in its crusade to force manufacturing back to the U.S. Canadian plants face tariffs on steel and aluminum, and another on autos themselves. Even if negotiations succeed in reducing those levies, the unpredictability of the current U.S. administration eliminates any chance of certainty, inhibiting long-term planning and investment strategies. Add in the failure of the EV revolution to attain the heights enthusiasts forecast for it and the future looks like one long, bumpy ride into doubt. Article content The Trudeau EV targets were introduced in 2022 by then-environment minister Steven Guilbeault, now minister of Canadian Identity and Culture. They set minimums for zero emission vehicle sales at 20 per by 2026, 60 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035. Article content The goals were always fanciful and have looked increasingly so as the EV business ran into trouble on numerous fronts. China's determination to flood the world with low-cost EVs roiled higher-cost rivals in Europe and North America. A global race to secure essential minerals set off commercial clashes in some of the world's most troubled countries. In addition to his on-again off-again tariff regime, Trump is set on weakening the U.S. EV industry, ordering an end to supports introduced by the Biden administration and cancelling a federal tax credit for EV sales in the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' approved Wednesday by Congress. A last-minute change to the legislation even advanced the end of the credit by three months to September this year. Article content Add to all that the personal implosion of Tesla founder Elon Musk, removing the perceived chichi-ness of owning a Tesla and sending sales into a tailspin, a tarnish potentially affecting the popularity of electric vehicles in general. Article content So there is a more-than-reasonable case to be made for Carney to water down the EV mandate while he's still in the business of ordering retreats. But there's an obvious political risk involved, and one he can't be keen to encourage. One retreat feeds another, and Canada's history of corporate subsidies and regulatory breaks means there's a long list of supplicants likely to view concessions to the auto giants as a signal to get out their begging bowls and head to Ottawa for similar treatment. Article content The auto sector claims an annual contribution of $16 billion to the economy, making the need for sympathetic treatment from Ottawa obvious. Yet a tradeoff of EV ambitions to fossil fuel realities is a contravention to Carney's clearly stated environmental beliefs. Article content
