President Donald Trump has dismissed the European Union’s proposal to make Canada its first-ever “associate member” as laughable, threatening heavy tariffs or even a halt to trade with the bloc if he judges the move to be a hostile act.
Speaking to reporters in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump called Canada a terrible trade partner and said that while a good-faith move by Europe would be fine, a bad-intentioned one would draw very heavy tariffs from the US. He added that if he considered the EU’s move a hostile act, he would impose serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many fronts altogether.
The comments followed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal, made during her annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg, to open the door for Canada to become the EU’s first associate member, a status that does not currently exist within the bloc’s framework. Von der Leyen described the plan as part of a broader push to build what she called an “Alliance for the Future” with Canada, moving beyond the two sides’ existing CETA trade agreement toward deeper cooperation in manufacturing, technology, defence, energy, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and Arctic affairs.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was present for von der Leyen’s address and later addressed the European Parliament himself, welcomed the EU’s ambition, saying Canadian lawmakers would ultimately have a say on the final structure of any such arrangement. Carney has previously said Ottawa is looking for what he called a unique security and economic alliance with Europe, rather than full EU membership, and has pledged to double Canada’s non-US trade over the next decade as part of a wider effort to diversify away from reliance on Washington.
The proposal comes against the backdrop of a deepening trade rift between the US and Canada, after talks between the two countries collapsed last month, triggering a series of retaliatory tariffs on both sides. A spokesperson for von der Leyen later sought to soften the diplomatic edge of the announcement, saying the push to strengthen ties with Canada was not directed against anyone else but was instead about building shared strength between the EU and Canada.