Canada-EU talks draw Trump tariff warning
For wealth managers tracking cross-border exposure, the procurement order carries the more immediate commercial weight. Trump’s memorandum directs US federal agencies to identify and remove Canadian-origin products from government purchasing schedules, which the White House says account for more than $50 billion a year. The order followed a Truth Social post a week earlier in which Trump said Canada’s “Buy Canadian” procurement rules amounted to a “Canadian Trade Scam.”
“The Canadian Government, including Canadian Provinces, have banned American Small Businesses and Companies from selling into their Government Procurement Markets,” Trump wrote. “That is not reciprocity, it is a Canadian Trade Scam.”
Terminology remains unsettled
The Montreal summit, confirmed by the Council of the European Union and Canada’s Prime Minister’s Office, is where officials are expected to begin defining the substance of any new arrangement. Carney’s office said in a September readout that Canada will host the gathering after “one year” of building a new strategic partnership with the EU spanning trade, energy, climate and technology.
Canada’s ambassador designate to the EU, Jonathan Wilkinson, told reporters Ottawa is “not there” yet on the associate-member framing, saying details of a new relationship remain “in flux.” A readout from the Prime Minister’s Office on the Carney-von der Leyen meeting made no mention of associate-member status but referenced a “far stronger, more ambitious alliance.”
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre pressed Carney over the shifting language, saying Canada “must be independent and sovereign” and that his party opposes “no EU taxes, no EU laws, and no EU open-border rules on immigration.”
