{"id":850463,"date":"2026-09-17T02:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T02:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850463\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T02:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T02:26:12","slug":"trump-says-canada-becoming-eu-associate-member-could-be-hostile-act-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850463\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says Canada becoming EU \u2018associate member\u2019 could be \u2018hostile act\u2019 | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US president threatened heavy tariffs and said the US could cut some trade with Europe over the proposed status.<\/p>\n

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Published On 17 Sep 202617 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

United States President Donald Trump has threatened the European Union with new tariffs over its proposal to make Canada the bloc\u2019s first \u201cassociate member\u201d, suggesting the move could be considered hostile to the US.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Trump said his response would depend on what European leaders were trying to achieve.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf it\u2019s a good intention, that\u2019s fine. If it\u2019s a bad intention, we\u2019ll put very heavy tariffs,\u201d Trump said. He also suggested the US could stop trading with Europe \u201con many things\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump dismissed the prospect of Canada joining the EU as \u201claughable\u201d and called the US\u2019s northern neighbour a \u201cterrible trade partner\u201d.<\/p>\n

His comments came just hours after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed opening the door<\/a> for Canada to become the EU\u2019s first \u201cassociate member\u201d, as Ottawa looks to build closer ties with Europe amid a deteriorating relationship<\/a> with Washington.<\/p>\n

What exactly \u201cassociate membership\u201d would look like, however, remains unclear.<\/p>\n

The status does not currently exist under EU treaties, and von der Leyen did not spell out what rights or obligations would come with it. Any proposal would also need the backing of EU member states.<\/p>\n

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s office welcomed the prospect of a \u201cfar stronger, more ambitious alliance in the future\u201d, but stopped short of endorsing associate membership specifically.<\/p>\n

Carney has previously described what Canada is pursuing as a \u201cunique alliance\u201d with Europe rather than membership in the bloc.<\/p>\n

Canada and the EU are already looking at closer cooperation on trade, technology, defence, energy, critical minerals and the Arctic, with more detailed talks expected at a Canada-EU summit in Montreal next month.<\/p>\n

The push comes as Canada looks to reduce its economic dependence on the US amid an escalating trade dispute<\/a> between the two neighbours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US president threatened heavy tariffs and said the US could cut some trade with Europe over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,103,12,101,1076,5335,3139,3,111,104,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":["post-850463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-international-trade","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-trade-war","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}