Bessent warns Carney against picking a fight before US-Canada-Mexico trade talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday warned Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that his recent public comments against U.S. trade policy could backfire going into the formal review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal that protects Canada from the heaviest impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Carney used a high-profile speech last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to condemn economic coercion by great powers on smaller countries and since then he has as since sparred with Trump and Bessent about related trade issues. Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada over a trade deal Carney is pursuing with Beijing.

“I would not pick a fight going into USMCA to score some cheap political points — either you’re working for your own political career or you’re working for the Canadian people,” Bessent said during a CNBC interview.

“I’ve seen what happens when a technocrat tries to pivot and become a politician.” Bessent added, in a reference to Carney’s background as a central banker. “It never really works out well.”

Trump and Carney spoke on Monday, after which Bessent told Fox News that the prime minister “was very aggressively walking back some of the unfortunate remarks he made at Davos.”

Carney had a different characterization the next day.

“To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” Carney told reporters.

The North American trade agreement signed in 2020 during Trump’s first term, but lately the Republican president has expressed indifference to it. Earlier this month, he said, “I don’t really care about it.”

Bessent, in his CNBC appearance, did say that in the end, “I think we will end up in a good place — may not be a straight line.”