EDITORIAL: Mark Carney tossed grenade into trade talks

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Why Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada’s support for an independent Palestinian state in opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s position – two days before the Aug. 1 deadline for negotiating a tariff and trade deal with Canada – is inexplicable.

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Initially, Trump said on social media that Canada’s actions would make it very difficult to reach an agreement on trade by the deadline, although he later said in response to questioning in the Oval Office that it wasn’t a deal breaker.

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Regardless, it was an unnecessary distraction from the trade negotiations with Trump, who signed an executive order Thursday raising U.S. tariffs on imported goods from Canada not compliant with the 2020 Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement to 35% from 25%.

The White House also announced a 40% tariff on any goods shipped to another country to avoid the tariffs.

As for the current state of the negotiations, Trump revealed that before the new tariffs were announced when he said, “We haven’t spoken to Canada today. He’s (Carney) called and … we’ll see.”

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Meanwhile Mexico, which didn’t impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. – in fact, Canada and China were the only two countries to do so – received a 90-day reprieve from any new tariffs while negotiations continue.

None of this evokes confidence in Carney’s ability to achieve a deal on trade with the U.S., which was why Canadians elected him.

To be clear, while we disagree with Carney’s intention to recognize an independent Palestinian state – particularly as he heads a minority government with Parliament in recess and thus with no debate in the House of Commons – we do not question his authority to make that decision.

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We are a sovereign nation with the right to declare our own foreign policies, regardless of the views of the American president.

But why Carney announced it just before a deadline on efforts to arrive at a deal on trade with Trump, affecting the livelihoods of millions of Canadians, defies logic.

As for what comes next in these negotiations, who knows, given Trump’s habit of changing his mind and reversing course on his decisions within days and sometimes mere hours after making them.

But there was no need for Carney to add fuel to the fire.

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