Latest news with #US-Canada
DW
a day ago
- Business
- DW
Trump gives trade threat to Canada after Palestine move – DW – 07/31/2025
Trump has said that Canada's move to recognize a Palestinian state could put a US-Canada trade agreement in jeopardy. DW has the special envoy Steve Witkoff is scheduled to leave for Israel as the US looks to address the worsening starvation crisis in Gaza, according to US media reports. The trip comes in the midst of stalled truce talks between Israel and Palestine's Hamas militant group. Witkoff said last week that the US had withdrawn its negotiating delegation from Qatar over what he called a lack of willingness by Hamas to reach a ceasefire. Israel has also pulled its team from the talks. The US, Qatar and Egypt are mediating between Israel and Hamas, who do not talk directly. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video US President Donald Trump has threatened Canada with repercussions for negotiations on a trade deal after it announced its plans to recognize Palestinian statehood. "Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them," Trump said on Truth Social, his social media platform. Trump's statement is set to intensify a trade war between US and Canada, just a day ahead of the August 1 deadline to lock a tariff agreement. If the two countries fail to strike an agreement by the deadline, Canada faces a 35% tariff on its goods which are not covered under the US-Mexico-Canada trade pact, On Wednesday, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the possibility of recognizing a Palestinian state at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly, scheduled for September. The UK and France have also said over the last week that they would support statehood for Palestine. Canada has joined Britain and France to say that it "intends" to recognize a Palestinian state in September. However, Canada's decision has resulted in threats from US President Donald Trump as a deadline for a trade agreement between the two countries nears. Trump has said that Canada's support for Palestinian statehood would make it difficult for the US to zero-in on an agreement with Canada. Canada will be hit with a 35% tariff on its exports to the US if a deal cannot be reached, the president said. Also, US special envoy Steve Witkoff will reportedly travel to Israel on Thursday in light of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Stay up-to-date with this blog as we bring you the latest reports, analyses, and explainers on the situation in Gaza.
Roya News
a day ago
- Politics
- Roya News
Trump says Canada recognizing Palestinian state would reward Hamas
US President Donald Trump has criticized Canada's decision to back Palestinian statehood, arguing that such recognition would effectively reward Hamas, according to a White House official. The remarks came shortly after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his government plans to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations this September. "As the president stated, he would be rewarding Hamas if he recognizes a Palestinian state, and he doesn't think they should be rewarded," a White House official told reporters on Wednesday, requesting anonymity. "So he is not going to do that. President Trump's focus is on getting people fed (in Gaza)." The official declined to confirm whether the Canadian government had given Washington prior notice before Carney's announcement. Trump followed up on the development with a post on his Truth Social platform early Thursday, hinting at potential strain in US-Canada trade talks. "Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh' Canada!!!" he wrote.
New York Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Leaders of Canada's ‘Freedom Convoy' facing up to eight years in prison: ‘political vengeance'
The leaders of Canada's 'Freedom Convoy' are facing up to eight years in prison, an 'abusive' sentencing recommendation critics are ripping as 'political vengeance.' Tamara Lich and Chris Barber sat in an Ottawa courtroom for their sentencing hearings this week after being found guilty in April of mischief for organizing the trucker protest against then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's ultra-strict vaccine mandate. 4 At the height of the protest, thousands of trucks joined in to push back against COVID mandates. REUTERS The protest paralyzed the Great White North's capital for three weeks in 2022. The Crown is seeking seven years for Lich, 51, of Alberta, and eight for Barber, of Saskatchewan — who was also found guilty of counseling others to disobey a court order. 'It seems like a considerable overreach,' Lich told The Post Friday, during a stop on her three-day drive back to Alberta. 'They're trying to deter others, I believe, from ever protesting something like this again.' Prosecutors are also pushing to seize Barber's truck, 'Big Red,' which was used in the protest — through a forfeiture order they filed three years after the fact. 4 Prosecutors want to seize Barber's truck. Chris Barber "Big Red" official /Facebook 'I've owned this truck for 21 years,' said Barber, 50, who runs a family trucking business and co-owns 'Big Red' with his son. 'This is how I make a living. And the Crown wants to remove that from me and destroy it, which is absolutely disheartening to see that they will go to such a level of vileness.' 'It's just this vindictive vendetta of pettiness,' Lich added. 4 Lich was one of the organizers of the 'Freedom Convoy.' REUTERS Barber's lawyer slammed the Crown's sentencing recommendation as 'excessive, abusive and unconstitutional.' Both Lich and Barber have been under bail conditions for the past three and a half years. 'This is political vengeance, not actual justice, and it's why trust in our institutions is dwindling,' fumed Conservative Party Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman. 4 The protest lasted close to a month during the winter of 2022. Getty Images The convoy started in revolt of Trudeau's vaccine mandate for US-Canada cross-border truckers — but quickly grew into a mass demonstration against the government's excessive COVID-19 restrictions. 'The Freedom convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates,' President Trump said at the time. Lich and Barber are set to be sentenced on Oct. 7, with their lawyers pushing for absolute discharges, which would absolve them of any criminal record.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump signals stalled US-Canada trade talks as tariff deadline looms
-- As the clock ticks toward a critical August 1 deadline, U.S.-Canada trade negotiations show few signs of progress, with officials on both sides signaling a hardening of positions. U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that talks with Ottawa have been largely unsuccessful, raising the possibility that tariffs may be the administration's primary course of action. 'We will have most of our deals finished, if not all. We haven't really had a lot of luck with Canada,' Trump told reporters. 'I think Canada could be one where they just pay tariffs. It's not really a negotiation.' Washington's immediate focus has turned toward the European Union, while Canada remains on the periphery of the White House trade agenda. 'We're working very diligently with Europe, the EU, which covers a lot of territory... That's the big one right now... We don't have a deal with Canada, we haven't been focused on it,' Trump added. Without a new trade pact in place, existing tariffs on certain Canadian exports are scheduled to rise to 35% from 25%, particularly on non-CUSMA goods. Canadian Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc concluded talks in Washington this week, meeting briefly with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. 'We've made progress, but we have a lot of work in front of us,' LeBlanc said following the meetings. Prime Minister Mark Carney has tempered expectations for any breakthrough, reiterating the government's commitment to national interest over expediency. "The Government of Canada will not accept a bad deal,' Carney stated, adding that Ottawa would proceed only 'in the best interest of Canadians.' Analysts from BofA Securities have cited tariff exemptions for CUSMA goods as leaving Canada and Mexico as the best-positioned countries currently subject to U.S. levies. The exemptions afford Canada some leeway, aligning with Trump's comments that the government may potentially foot the tariff bill, all in hopes of a better deal. Related articles Trump signals stalled US-Canada trade talks as tariff deadline looms These Under-the-Radar Stocks Offer Better Risk-Reward Ratio Than Nvidia Risks Rising? Smart Money Dodged 46%+ Drawdowns on These High-Flying Names Error al recuperar los datos Inicia sesión para acceder a tu cartera de valores Error al recuperar los datos Error al recuperar los datos Error al recuperar los datos Error al recuperar los datos
Telegraph
25-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Europe faces an economic war on two fronts
China's charm offensive in Europe did not last long. Xi Jinping has abandoned all pretence of a combined Sino-European front to defend world trade against Donald Trump. It would be more accurate to say that he has joined the kill, sharpening his tools of coercion and activating China's rare-earth weapon against Europe just as aggressively as he has against his American nemesis. 'It was never that charming in the first place,' said Andrew Small, from the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. 'They were slightly more civil for a bit, but now almost everybody in Europe recognises that there isn't going to be any rapprochement. China has made that absolutely clear,' he said. Mr Small said China has seized on the transatlantic rift to hit Europe while it is down, much as it did to Canada at the low point of US-Canada relations. 'Beijing treats this simply as a moment of vulnerability to exploit,' he said. The slimmed down EU-China summit this week marks a 50-year nadir in bilateral relations, a charade of wooden smiles and gritted teeth. 'We have not always seen eye to eye,' was the warmest that Antonio Costa, the European council president, could come up with. Europe now finds itself in an economic war on two fronts at once. The Trump ordeal is the lesser of the two. American tariffs on EU goods look likely to settle at 15pc, with a few carve-outs but also prohibitive tariffs on steel, aluminium, and (later) pharma. Such a level is not as harmless as euphoric markets seem to imply. Citigroup's Giada Giani said the eurozone's growth spurt earlier this year was an illusion of 'tariff frontloading'. She expects zero growth for the next three quarters. It would not take much to push Europe into outright recession. But the much greater long-term danger comes from the massive and systemic dumping of Chinese excess capacity on European markets. China's trade surplus with the EU hit €305bn (£265bn) last year. The monthly data shows that it is on an exploding trajectory this year. Europe is suffering the brunt of the China shock 2.0. The first China shock in the 1990s and early 2000s flooded the world with cheap goods and convulsed the global economy. It led to deflation, ultra-low interest rates, and debt bubbles. It rendered finance too proud and caused the worst inequality in a century. Free capital flows and a globalised workforce allowed the owners of capital to exploit labour arbitrage, playing off Chinese wages against wages in the West. The politics were, and still are, toxic. Goldman Sachs says the China shock 1.0 peaked at 0.6pc of global GDP in 2008. That was enough to destabilise our democracies. It is heading for 1pc this year as China remains mired in a post-bubble deflationary slump and as Chinese companies seek foreign markets to stay afloat. 'The China shock 2.0 is even worse than the first one. It is going to be slow torture for Europe,' said George Magnus, from Oxford University's China Centre. The US political class has concluded that the trading relationship is unworkable on current terms and has taken drastic action to defend America. The EU has allowed itself to become the market of last resort by default. The French grumble that German companies made a Faustian pact with China and long ago hijacked EU policy in their own interests. 'The Europeans are at last getting this, and there's been a shift even in Germany because the shock is really hitting home,' said Mr Magnus. 'It's reached a point where it threatens to destroy Europe's industrial capacity and know-how. It would be utterly myopic to ignore this for the sake of cheaper consumer goods,' he said. Europe has imposed calibrated tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and launched 18 trade defence measures of various kinds, but this ponderous pedantry is overwhelmed by larger forces. China has been suppressing the yuan via two disguised mechanisms: wage deflation and by linking the yuan to a weakening US dollar. The combined effect has been a depreciation of China's 'real effective exchange rate' against the euro of almost 30pc since 2022. We can argue over whether or not this is currency manipulation. Brad Setser, from the US Council on Foreign Relations, says Beijing is intervening surreptitiously and on a huge scale through the offshore dollar holdings of the state-owned banks. Of course, China would slide into even deeper deflation if it revalued, but that only goes to show that the 'Leninist-capitalist' model of the Communist Party cannot coexist with the world's open trading system. One or the other has to go. China's export surge is not happening because its products are better or because its economic model is more competitive. It is the result of a system that favours chronic over-investment, with warped incentives that defy market price signals. Policy is geared to the state-owned behemoths and honed to ensure absolute party control. The whole structure crushes consumption. It is why Chinese households enjoy just 37pc of GDP, compared to 51pc in Germany, 62pc in the UK, and 68pc in the US. It is why China produces 32pc of the world's manufacturing goods but accounts for 13pc of world consumption. The rest of us have to absorb this surplus. Chinese economists have been calling for deep change to boost welfare spending and move to a modern consumption economy, if only in China's own self-interest. That is how you get out of a deflation trap. Xi Jinping will have none of it. Welfarism leads to 'lazy people' and wastes money needed for the techno-military Cold War against the West, and to sustain the national security state. 'Once welfare benefits go up, they never come down,' he says. The evidence of the last year, from the third plenum onwards, is that China is doubling down on its deformed model of industrial over-capacity. This is what Europe is facing. Any attempt to defend itself is met by Xi's coercive use of China's rare earth monopoly and its hold over critical choke points in the global supply chain. At the same time, any attempt by Europe to defend itself against Donald Trump's tariff shakedown is met by veiled threats to throw Ukraine to the wolves, or to let gas-short Europe freeze in winter. Europe is learning what it means to have no leverage in a Hobbesian world of lawless bruisers. But for all of Trump's pyrotechnics, China poses by far the greater menace. Charles Parton from Germany's Mercator Institute says the Communist Party sees diplomacy as a zero-sum 'struggle against hostile forces'. Leaked internal documents leave no doubt that the Politburo thinks it is in an ideological knife-fight against liberal democratic values, economic freedoms, and the pluralist society. 'These elements add up to a geopolitical war. Many third countries fail to recognise this reality,' he said. Europe has long been among the blind. The dependency now runs so deep that the EU cannot extract itself without serious damage. Its belated and half-hearted policy of 'de-risking' has failed from top to bottom. Markets are talking up a European economic renaissance over the next three years. It is a bet on Nato rearmament and military-Keynesian growth. I can see the logic but there must be a very high risk that Europe will disappoint yet again and slip deeper into its second lost decade. The tragedy for the West is that it stands divided in the critical civilisational battle of our time. Donald Trump is single-handedly to blame for this. He really is Xi Jinping's useful idiot.
