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(Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Donald Trump’s tariff policy is an act of economic self-sabotage that’s pushing the US into a downturn.
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Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, said Monday the US president’s trade war is “self-harming to the American economy and therefore the global economy.”
“The US is driving itself into a recession,” Carney said at an election campaign stop in Victoria, British Columbia. “I think the core message to Canadians is something I’ve said over and over again, but I want to really emphasize — we can give ourselves far more than the US can take away.”
It will be difficult for Canada to avoid a recession if the US continues with its tariff policy and enters one, the prime minister said, but the country can take steps such as reducing trade barriers between provinces and building trade relationships with other countries. The US buys about three-quarters of Canada’s exports.
The market chaos unleashed by Trump’s trade war continued for a third day on Monday as stocks, bonds and commodities all swung wildly. At one point, roughly $10 trillion had been wiped from equity markets worldwide since the US president unveiled tariffs on countries around the world on April 2, prompting China and others to announce retaliation.
Carney, who resigned from roles as chair of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. and Bloomberg Inc. before successfully running to replace Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, said markets and banks are functioning well. The prime minister spoke with Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem earlier in the day, as well as Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.
“We have rock-solid financial institutions in this country, so they’re not making it worse,” he said. “What is happening in the markets is they are reacting to what we have warned about, which is that these tariffs are fundamentally damaging to the American economy and by extension to the global economy.”
Canada was spared from Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” last week, but has been hit with levies on autos, steel and aluminum, as well as on products that don’t comply with the North American trade deal. Canada has retaliated with tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of US goods.