deal only allows<\/a> 49,000 EVs into Canada to start (that\u2019s about three per cent of all vehicles sold in this country) and lowers Beijing’s tariffs on canola products but it doesn\u2019t eliminate them.<\/p>\nJim Thorne, chief market strategist at the wealth management firm Wellington Altus, says it doesn\u2019t cross any red lines for the U.S. administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarney is testing where that red line is,\u201d he told CBC News.<\/p>\n
Many American media outlets framed the Carney deal as a break from the U.S.; that Canada was trying to diversify from an increasingly hostile neighbour.<\/p>\n
But Thorne says that misses the broader point. He says the Canada-China deal can and should be seen by Trump as a useful reference point rather than a provocation.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768648147_352_default.jpg\")
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday it’s a ‘good thing’ that Carney signed a deal with China. (Evan Vucci\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at the Canada-China deal as a litmus test that the Americans are looking at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump’s red lines have shifted over time. But his concern about China gaining a foothold in North America is one that he\u2019s consistently warned about for decades.<\/p>\n
The deal is “problematic for Canada,” according to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why we don\u2019t sell a lot of Chinese cars in the United States. It\u2019s because we have tariffs to protect American auto workers and Americans from those vehicles,\u201d he told CNBC Friday morning. <\/p>\n
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he thought Canada would look back at this deal and regret bringing Chinese cars into the market.<\/p>\n
But none of the U.S. officials appeared worried that the deal would upend Canada-U.S. relations.<\/p>\n
“I don’t expect that to disrupt American supply into Canada,” said Greer. “Those cars are going to Canada \u2014 they’re not coming here.”<\/p>\n
WATCH | PM takes questions on deal:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768648148_592_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Q&A: Carney takes questions on China trade deal, EVs and security<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who announced a deal Friday with China on a range of sectors, including canola and a tariff-quota arrangement on electric vehicles, took questions on the terms of the deal, what it means for Canada \u2014 and the implications of moving closer to China.<\/p>\n
Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at the financial services firm Corpay, says Carney and his team avoided the issues that are likely to spark backlash from the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump administration has already taken the U.S. out of the running in electric vehicles, and has not identified agricultural products as a major strategic priority,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is possible that this agreement was approved through back channels with the administration, meaning that \u2014 other than issuing a few obligatory hostile statements \u2014 U.S. officials simply ignore this development.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the initial reaction would seem to confirm that analysis.<\/p>\n
But not that long ago Trump initially shrugged off an anti-tariff ad the Ontario government ran during the World Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,\u201d said Trump the morning after it aired.<\/p>\n
But within two days, Trump said the ad had \u201cfraudulently\u201d reused an old advertisement, which featured Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs, and broke off all trade talks with Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Hyder says it will take time for the Americans to absorb the news out of China and more time to see how the president actually feels about the deal. But he too wonders if the Americans are hoping to glean important information for their own trade deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s see what they do. The U.S. president is going to China. Will he come back with something similar on cars? It wouldn\u2019t surprise me one bit,\u201d said Hyder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-242944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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