China said on Monday that a preliminary trade deal reached with Canada "does not target any third parties" after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on Canadian products if the agreement was finalized.
Under the deal, announced this month, Beijing is expected to reduce tariffs on Canadian canola imports and reportedly also grant Canadians visa-free travel to China, while it would also allow sales of a number of Chinese-made electric vehicles in Canada.
But over the weekend, the U.S. – Canada's traditional ally – threatened to impose 100% tariffs on Canadian products if the deal were to go ahead, claiming it would allow China to "dump goods."
China's foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said on Monday that the trade deal was not aimed at Washington.
"China and Canada have established a new type of strategic partnership ... it does not target any third party," Jiakun told a regular press conference, as per Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"China advocates that nations should approach state-to-state relations with a win-win rather than zero-sum mindset, and through cooperation rather than confrontation," he added.
The deal between China and Canada was announced during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to Beijing this month, as he seeks to distance himself from a volatile U.S. under Trump.
Canada and the U.S. have been caught in a trade war since the Trump administration imposed import duties on its northern neighbor.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on social media that negotiations between Ottawa and Beijing amounted to China "successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada."
Following the president's comments, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told U.S. media that "we can't let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S."
Carney, however, said on Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He said that his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico, there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
"We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy," Carney said. "What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years."
In 2024, Canada mirrored the U.S. by putting a 100% tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100% import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood.
Breaking with Washington, this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on the mentioned Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1%, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. Also, he has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3% of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without U.S. access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large-scale manufacturing from China.
"A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT," Trump posted on social media.
Trump's post on Saturday said that if Carney "thinks he is going to make Canada a 'Drop Off Port' for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken."
"We can't let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S," Bessent said on ABC's "This Week."
"We have a (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement), but based off, based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I'm not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos."
Trump's threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president's push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the U.S. under Trump.
Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, "Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu," and he warned about coercion by great powers, without mentioning Trump's name. The Canadian prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
