Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday September 16 to cut off trade with the European Union in reaction to the latter’s plan to make Canada its first associate member country.
While relations between Europe and the United States remain tense, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed on Wednesday that Canada could become the first “associate member” country of the EU, in the presence of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is due to speak to MEPs on Thursday. She also proposed that this North American country join the future “European Security Council”, which she calls for.
“I find it ridiculous,” the US president told reporters when asked about the proposal. “If they do this, if I consider it a hostile act, I will impose very heavy tariffs or I will cease all trade with Europe.”
“We have a lot of things to do with Canada”
Canada, in the middle of a trade war with Donald Trump’s United States, is standing up to Washington and looking for new partners. For its part, Europe, whose relations with the Trump administration are just as stormy, is looking for support for its strategy of rebalancing between the two superpowers, China and the United States.
For its part, France welcomed on Thursday the project to deepen the relationship between the EU and Canada. “It’s a very good idea,” declared Benjamin Haddad, minister responsible for Europe on Public Senate, while emphasizing that the question of the status of this association remains open.
“We have a lot to do with Canada” which is politically aligned with the EU on several themes, he added, but “I don’t know what institutional form this should take”.
Asked about Donald Trump’s reaction, he said that “it is not up to the United States to choose the political and geopolitical orientations of the Europeans.”
With AFP
