Canada sovereignty non-negotiable, incoming PM tells Trump ahead of talks

The Irish Premier refused to be goaded by a combative Donald Trump in the Oval Office but was still warned Ireland and the EU will ‘of course’ face tariffs over a trade deficit.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin with Donald Trump and JD Vance in the Oval Office of the White House. Picture: AFP.

Canada’s incoming prime minister, Mark Carney, has put Donald Trump on notice, saying he is prepared to meet and thrash out a “common approach” to trade on the condition that the US President first agree to accept Canadian sovereignty.

With Canada and Europe unveiling their own retaliatory tariffs against the US, the Premier of Canada’s largest province of Ontario, Doug Ford, spoke with the prime minister-designate ahead of his crucial Thursday meeting in Washington with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Mr Ford on Tuesday temporarily suspended a plan to apply a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity sent to Michigan, Minnesota and New York after agreeing to meet Mr Lutnick, with Mr Trump also dropping his threat to double the 25 per cent tariff on Canadian aluminium and steel.

Visiting a steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario on Wednesday, Mr Carney said he was “ready to sit down with the Americans, with the US government. I’m ready to sit down with President Trump at the appropriate time”. But he made clear it needed to be “under a position where there’s respect for Canadian sovereignty”.

This condition was set by Mr Carney after Mr Lutnick told Fox Business earlier in the day that “the best way to actually merge the economies of Canada and the United States is for Canada to become our 51st state”.

The US President also met with Irish premier Micheal Martin on Wednesday, and criticised Ireland for using its tax policies to lure away US companies, particularly pharmaceuticals. He also fired a broadside at the European Union after it announced 50 per cent tariffs on US goods, in an escalation of trade tensions.

Unlike the recent embarrassing contretemps with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in the same room, Mr Martin was conciliatory and congratulatory especially about the President’s efforts to secure peace in Ukraine.

Mr Trump said America had achieved a “great success” in securing Ukrainian support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal following talks in Saudi Arabia, declaring its progress was “up to Russia now.”

“People are going to Russia right now as we speak,” he said. “Hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia. And, if we do, I think that would be 80 per cent of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath finished.”

Mr Trump said he had not yet spoken to Russian leader Vladimir Putin “with substance” but stressed it was a “very serious situation”.

“This is a situation which could lead to World War Three,” he said.

Amid stockmarket turbulence and new fears of a possible recession, Mr Trump also seized on cooling inflation figures showing consumer prices lifting by 2.8 per cent in February compared with a year earlier – down on the 3 per cent result returned in January.

But he strongly defended his use of tariffs, arguing America had been “abused for a long time as a country … and we will be abused no longer”.

He met Mr Martin as the European Union and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs against the US, further escalating a global trade war after Washington imposed levies on global steel and aluminium imports.

Canada said it would put 25 per cent tariffs on an additional $20.6bn in US imported goods, including steel and aluminium products, computers and sports equipment. The Canadian tariffs were set to take effect on Thursday.

The EU said it plans 50 per cent tariffs on imports of American whiskey, motorcycles and motorboats from April 1 – a measure that will hit Kentucky bourbon and Harley-Davidson. Other goods will be included, such as cranberries, garden umbrellas, tablecloths and handkerchiefs.

A second round of EU levies will be imposed on US products from mid-April, applying to poultry, beef, white chocolate, soybeans, carpets and watermelons.

Mr Trump accused the EU of “going after our companies”. “We have a problem with the European Union. They don’t take our farm products. They don’t take our cars. We take millions of cars, BMWs and Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagens and everything. We take millions of cars,” he said.

“We have the greatest farmers in the world. They don’t accept our farm products, so you know things are going to change.”

The President again touted his reciprocal tariff regime, declaring “whatever they charge us with, we’re charging them. Nobody can complain about that”.

He also foreshadowed a rise in tariffs with Ireland “to even out a massive trade deficit”. Ireland had attracted many US companies with a low corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent back in 1997.

Mr Martin gently pointed out US benefits of Irish companies such as Ryanair, which buys its planes from US company Boeing, but appeared not to have made any impact on Mr Trump’s plans.

Mr Trump warned the world that April 2 – when reciprocal tariffs would begin – would be “a very big day for us, the United States will take back what was stolen from us by other countries”. He also said it was unfair that Apple lost $16bn, ruled by the European Court of Justice, over the payment of Irish tax.

But in comments that will be seized upon in the nervous Brussels headquarters of NATO, Mr Trump said “NATO can be a force for the good’’. He said it was his efforts that got many of the 28 nations paying their contributions and helping make NATO much stronger, and able to spend money on “this horrible war” in Ukraine.