Trump threatens to stop trading with EU over ‘laughable’ membership offer to Canada

Donald Trump has threatened the EU with “serious tariffs” and a halt to trade after the bloc proposed making Canada its first ever associate member – an idea he derided as “laughable”.

The US president said that if the EU moved forward with the plan, Washington could impose “very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe”. He added: “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.”

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, is due to address the European parliament on Thursday, a day after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, invited his country to become the EU’s first “associate member”.

Von der Leyen pitched closer cooperation on tech, defence and energy to Carney, telling the European parliament that, as democracies faced a “fracture in the international rules-based system”, Brussels and Ottawa needed to pull closer together.

She said: “This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength. In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible.”

In response to Trump’s comments, France’s Europe minister Benjamin Haddad said on Thursday that Washington had no power to veto EU decisions.

“It is not up to the United States, or ‌anyone else, to choose the political and geopolitical direction of the Europeans. Once again, we have a relationship ⁠with Canada, and we are fully entitled to seek to deepen it,” Haddad ‌told Public Sénat TV channel.

A European Commission spokesperson said: “As our president made clear yesterday, the proposed strengthening of the relationship with Canada is not against anyone else, but for our common strength.”

View image in fullscreenMark Carney and Andy Burnham, both Everton fans, watch Everton v Wolverhampton Wanderers in Liverpool on Wednesday. Photograph: Paul Cooper/ReutersCarney has called for a “unique alliance” with the EU as Canada seeks to reduce its heavy dependence on US trade. After meeting EU leaders in Strasbourg on Wednesday, he described the EU and Canada as “natural partners, united by shared values” and said that both sides were focused on “a deeper partnership that reinforces our mutual sovereignty to create more opportunities and prosperity for our peoples”.

An associate membership agreement would have to be approved by the EU’s 27 member states, who generally support closer ties with Canada, but were taken by surprise by the term.

Canada and the EU already have a trade deal and numerous bilateral agreements, but have been moving closer since Donald Trump returned to the White House and raised tariffs on both old allies, while repeatedly talking about Canada becoming the 51st US state and lambasting the EU.

In a sign that Canada was seeking to further diversify its defence ties ⁠away from ⁠the ​US, Carney’s office announced on Wednesday that the country had formally applied to join the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force military ⁠coalition.