US-Canada ties: Trump and Carney set for high-stakes meeting
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meets Donald Trump on Tuesday for the first time since he won reelection on a pledge to stand up to the US president's tariffs and threats to annex the United States' northern neighbor.
The 60-year-old Liberal Party leader has said that things cannot be the same with the United States under Trump, and warned not to expect any immediate agreements from the meeting at the White House.
Trump has sparked a major trade war with Canada, which counts the United States as its main ally and trading partner, while repeatedly making extraordinary calls for Canada to become the 51st US state.
Republican Trump called Carney a 'very nice gentleman' after they spoke last week but said on Monday that he was 'not sure' what Carney wanted to talk about.
'He's coming to see me. I'm not sure what he wants to see me about, but I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump is set to welcome Carney at 11:30 am (1530 GMT), followed by lunch and then a meeting in the Oval Office.
Trump slapped general tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico and sector-specific levies on autos, some of which have been suspended pending negotiations. He has also imposed similar duties on steel and aluminum.
Carney has vowed to remake Canada's ties with the United States in perhaps its biggest political and economic shift since World War II.
'Our old relationship based on steadily increasing integration is over. The questions now are how our nations will cooperate in the future,' Carney said on Friday.
The Canadian leader said he would also 'fight to get the best deal' on the tariffs.
But Trump's ultra-loyal Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said it would be 'really complex' to reach a deal.
'They have their socialist regime and it's basically feeding off of America,' he told Fox Business on Monday. 'I just don't see how it works out perfectly.'
'Important moment'
The US president inserted himself into Canada's election early on with a social media post saying Canada would face 'ZERO TARIFFS" if it 'becomes the cherished 51st state.'
Pierre Poilievre's Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump's attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.
Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister in March, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.
The political newcomer previously served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and in the latter post he played a key role reassuring markets after the 2016 Brexit vote.
Carney is known for weighing his words carefully but he will face a challenge dealing with the confrontational Trump on the US president's home turf.
'This is a very important moment for him, since he insisted during the campaign that he could take on Mr Trump,' Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, told AFP.
The Canadian premier would also have to avoid the fate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who walked into a brutal tongue-lashing from Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February.
'Everyone obviously remembers the altercation with Zelenskyy,' said Tellier.
One point in Carney's favor is that he is not Trudeau, the slick former prime minister whom Trump famously loathed and belittled as 'governor' of Canada, she added.
The world will also be watching, with Carney's victory one of two by left-leaning leaders in the past week in elections that Trump's stance may have swayed.
Carney's victory came just days before Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also won reelection in a vote that was overshadowed by Trump's tariff threats.
On arrival in the US capital, the Canadian PM struck a confident tone.
'Canada and the United States are strongest when we work together -- and that work starts now,' he said on social media.
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