In a speech widely seen as a rebuke of President Donald Trump's aggressive global trade and military policy, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney called on other smaller countries to cooperate with one another rather than give in to coercion.
"Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited," Carney told world leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
Individual countries like Canada and European nations — which Carney referred to as "middle powers" — lack the economic heft to defy these larger powers. "The middle powers must act together, because if we're not at the table, we're on the menu," he said.
Carney did not mention Trump or the US by name in his speech, but the meaning was clear in the European setting amid Trump's repeated threats of annexing Denmark's Greenland territory.
"We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition," said Carney, repeating language he has often used domestically.
Canada was among the first countries to be targeted by US tariffs last year and a pattern of on-again, off-again trade talks have persisted between the two long-time trading partners. Carney has vowed to double Canada's non-US exports to pivot away from its neighbor, which includes striking a deal in China last week and calling that country "more predictable".
Now with most countries threatened by US tariffs, and some threatened by annexation, including Canada, Carney is calling on others to resist the temptation to capitulate and instead draw a line in the sand.
"There is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety. Well, it won't," said Carney.
Trump shot back at Carney during his own Davos address on Wednesday.
"I watched your prime minister yesterday, he wasn't so grateful," Trump said. "But they should be grateful to us, Canada. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements."
Trump on Wednesday walked back plans to impose a 10pc tariff on imports from the UK and seven EU members over their position on US ownership of Greenland, citing a "framework" of a future deal being achieved.
Carney has hit back at the US with counter tariffs of its own, but has also relented at times. Canada in June 2025 rescinded a digital sales tax that would have collected revenue from the US' largest tech companies, after US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick said the tax could have been a deal breaker in trade negotiations.
That show of good faith — which did not appear to be reciprocated — was criticized within Canada as being contrary to Carney's repeated "elbows up" mantra in the face of Trump's threats.
