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Trump
calls EU offer to Canada of associate membership ‘laughable’, while threatening
tariffs
US
president warns over ‘hostile act’, as Canada seeks to move closer to the EU
and diversify its defence ties
Guardian
staff and agencies
Thu 17
Sep 2026 02.13 BST
Donald
Trump has threatened the European Union with “serious tariffs” and a cut to
trade after the bloc proposed to make Canada its first ever associate member,
calling the idea “laughable”.
Suggesting
the move was a “hostile act”, the US president told reporters he could put
“very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe”. 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.”
European
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada to become the EU’s
first “associate member” on Wednesday, a day before Canadian prime minister
Mark Carney was due to address the European parliament.
Von der
Leyen pitched closer cooperation on tech, defence and energy to Carney, telling
the European parliament that, as democracies face a “fracture in the
international rules-based system”, Brussels and Ottawa needed to pull closer
together.
Canada
and the EU already have a trade deal and numerous bilateral agreements, but
have been moving closer since Donald Trump returned to the White House and
raised tariffs on both old allies, while repeatedly talking about Canada
becoming the 51st US state and lambasting the EU.
In a sign
that Canada was seeking to further diversify its defence ties away from the United States, Carney’s office announced on Wednesday that
the country had formally applied to join the British-led Joint Expeditionary
Force military coalition.
The force
is a rapid response military partnership comprised of 10 North Atlantic Nato
member states, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
On
Wednesday, Carney and British prime minister Andy Burnham held a bilateral
meeting at the grounds of Everton football club. The leaders, who are both fans
of the premiership club, then attended the team’s game against Wolves.
The two
discussed deepening defence cooperation and the opportunities and challenges presented by artificial intelligence. Downing Street said
both prime ministers emphasised the importance of building close ties with European
partners, particularly on trade and defence.
The
27-member EU has never had an associate membership category, although it has
close ties with Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, allowing deep economic
integration with these countries, who follow many EU rules. However it remains
to be seen what associate membership means, including for Canada’s relationship
with the EU single market.
Von der
Leyen said on Wednesday 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. “This is a partnership not against anyone else,
but for our common strength,” she said.
With
Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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