US President Donald Trump has said he would impose a 100% tariff on Canada if it makes a trade deal with China and warned Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that a deal would endanger his country.
"China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life," Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
"If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A."
Mr Carney during a recent visit to China called the Asian superpower a "reliable and predictable partner" and in Davos encouraged European leaders to seek investment from the world's second-largest economy.
Mr Trump suggested that China would try to use Canada to evade US tariffs.
"If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a 'Drop Off Port' for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken."
Tensions between the US and its northern neighbour have grown in recent days.
Mr Trump on Thursday withdrew an invitation for Canada to join his Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts.
That about-face followed Mr Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he openly decried powerful nations using economic integration as weapons and tariffs as leverage.
He he earned a standing ovation for his frank assessment of a "rupture" in the US-led global order.
His comment was widely viewed as a reference to Trump's disruptive influence on international affairs, although the US leader was not mentioned by name.
"Canada doesn't live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian," Mr Carney said on Thursday in a national address, while acknowledging the "remarkable partnership between the two nations."
Earlier this month, in the first visit by a Canadian leader to China in eight years, Mr Carney hailed a "new strategic partnership" with China in talks with President Xi Jinping.
The two countries had been locked in years of diplomatic spats after the retaliatory arrests of each other's citizens and a series of tit-for-tat trade disputes.
Mr Xi said China-Canada relations had reached a turning point at their last meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in October.
Canada is heavily reliant on trade with the United States, the destination for more than three quarters of Canadian exports.
Key Canadian sectors like auto, aluminum and steel have been hit hard by Mr Trump's global sectoral tariffs, but the impacts of the levies have been muted by the president's broad adherence to an existing North American free trade agreement.
Negotiations on revising that deal are set for the start of this year, and Mr Trump has repeatedly insisted the United States does not need access to any Canadian products - which would have sweeping consequences for its northern neighbour.
Mr Trump has also repeatedly threatened to annex Canada, and this week posted an image on social media of a map with Canada - as well as Greenland and Venezuela - covered by the American flag.
The two nations, along with Mexico, are set to host the World Cup later this year.
