US President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut trade with the European Union after the bloc proposed to make Canada its first-ever associate member.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen raised the prospect a day before Canadian leader Mark Carney was due to address the European Parliament.
Her pitch comes as both Canada and the EU seek to pivot away from an aggressive United States under Trump’s leadership.
“I think it’s laughable,” Trump told reporters when asked about the plan.
“If they do that, if I think it’s at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe, on many things.”
He added, “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe, which is a possibility.”
Von der Leyen pitched closer cooperation on tech, defence and energy to Carney, who became the first non-European head of government to attend the annual “State of the European Union” speech.
The German told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that, as democracies face a “fracture in the international rules-based system,” Brussels and Ottawa needed to pull closer together.
“I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU,” von der Leyen told the Canadian premier, drawing a standing ovation in the chamber.
– A broader alliance –
Carney has been pursuing closer ties with the EU as Canada gets drawn ever deeper into a trade war with the United States.
He is set to address Parliament on Thursday, with his visit meant to act as a catalyst ahead of an EU-Canada summit in Montreal next month.
Von der Leyen said it was time to move from cooperation based on trade to a broader “alliance for the future” and “bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible.”
“We will work on intelligent manufacturing. We will create a tech alliance. We will integrate defence industrial bases. We will make the Arctic a flagship joint project,” she said.
She listed energy, critical minerals, batteries, AI, cyber and economic security as other fields of cooperation.
