US will retaliate if Canada seals trade deal with China

President Donald Trump says ​the United States will respond ⁠in a significant way if Canada proceeds with the trade agreement it negotiated with ‌China.

"If they ​do a deal with ‍China, yeah, we'll do something very substantial," the US president told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"We don't want ​China to ‌take over Canada. And if they make ​the deal that he's looking ‍to make, China will take over Canada."

Trump last ​week ​said ​he would impose ​a 100 per cent tariffs on Canada if it follows through on a trade deal with China.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney last month struck a trade deal with Beijing slashing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and Canadian canola oil.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Beijing this week to repair ties that have been strained for years, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected there next month.

In a major shift to the world order since Trump took office again, America's closest partners are exploring opportunities with China following clashes with Trump over tariffs and his demands to take over Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.

Despite the risk of irking Trump, they are resetting relations with a country long seen as a top adversary to many Western allies and the top economic rival to the US.

"We're engaging broadly, strategically with open eyes," Carney said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, shortly after he returned from Beijing. "We actively take on the world as it is, not wait around for a world we wish to be."

Some leaders, politicians and experts lament a shift that could tip the balance in Beijing's favour at Washington's expense, while others say China is as much of a challenge as the US because both exert pressure for their own interests. Either way, how countries are aligning themselves with the world's two superpowers is changing.

with AP