\nAFP \/\/<\/p>\n
The European Union has proposed making Canada an associate member. The United States has threatened to halt trade with the European bloc if this move is implemented. US President Donald Trump has described the plan to grant membership as “ridiculous.”<\/p>\n
Responding to questions from journalists on Wednesday (US time), Trump said, “If they do this, and if I consider the move hostile, I will impose heavy tariffs. Or, I will stop trading many products with Europe.”<\/p>\n
The US President added, “If the intention is good, then it is fine. But if the intention is bad, we will impose very harsh tariffs on Europe.”<\/p>\n
In response to Trump’s threat, Olof Gill, the European Commission’s trade spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday that the proposal to make Canada an associate member is not a move directed against the United States. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also clarified this point during her ‘State of the European Union’ address.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her annual address at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. During the speech\u2014known as the ‘State of the European Union’ address\u2014she proposed making Canada an associate member of the Union. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was also present at the event.<\/p>\n
In her speech, Ursula said, “Democratic nations are facing a breakdown in the international rules-based order. Therefore, Brussels (EU headquarters) and Ottawa need to draw closer.” She cited technology, defense, and energy as areas for cooperation.<\/p>\n
Addressing Mark Carney, Ursula said, “I want to open the door for Canada to become the EU’s first associate member.” Members present in the parliament stood up to welcome Carney. Carney is scheduled to deliver a speech during the second day of the ‘State of the European Union’ proceedings.<\/p>\n
Ursula von der Leyen stated that the time has come to move beyond trade-based cooperation toward a broader alliance. “We must elevate our relationship with Canada to the highest possible level. We will work on production systems,” she said. We will build a technology alliance. We will integrate the foundations of our defense industries. The time has also come to turn the Arctic into a major joint project.<\/p>\n
In her speech, Ursula highlighted critical minerals, batteries, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and economic security as other areas of EU-Canada cooperation. She stated that this partnership is not directed against anyone else; rather, it is a partnership based on shared strengths.<\/p>\n
Due to strained relations with US President Donald Trump, both Canada and the EU are seeking to distance themselves from the United States and turn towards other partners. Against this backdrop, Mark Carney is working to foster closer ties with the EU. An EU-Canada summit is scheduled to take place in Montreal next month.<\/p>\n
Read the news and share your views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFP \/\/ The European Union has proposed making Canada an associate member. The United States has threatened to halt trade with the European bloc if this move is implemented. US President Donald Trump has described the plan to grant membership as “ridiculous.” Responding to questions from journalists on Wednesday (US time), Trump said, “If they do this, and if I consider the move hostile, I will impose heavy tariffs. Or, I will stop trading many products with Europe.” The US President added, “If the intention is good, then it is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8762,"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8760\/revisions\/8762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailymorningsun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}