Trump wants to review US-Canada borders – New York Times
US President Donald Trump wants to revise the century-old agreement on the demarcation of the US-Canadian border.
This is reported by The New York Times, Censor.NET reports with reference to UNIAN.
After Trump imposed a 25% duty on goods from Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unusually tough statement. In particular, he denied the US president's claim that the tariffs on Canadian imports are related to protecting the US from the smuggling of the drug fentanyl.
"The excuse ... is absolutely false, absolutely unfounded, absolutely lying. He wants to see a complete collapse of the Canadian economy because it will make annexation easier," Trudeau said.
The NYT believes this is a sign that Trudeau no longer considers Trump's statements about the "governor of Canada" and the "51st state" to be just bad jokes. Journalists' sources told what exactly prompted the Canadian prime minister to take the US president's words seriously.
During February, the two leaders held several phone calls to discuss bilateral trade issues. The specific details of these conversations remained closed to the public, but NYT sources familiar with the talks say that they were not just about tariffs.
During these calls, Trump laid out a long list of grievances with Canada's economic policies, but he also touched on a much more fundamental topic. According to the sources, he told Trudeau that he did not believe in the validity of the 1908 treaty on the demarcation of the border between the two countries and that he wanted to revise the border.
Trump also demanded a revision of the rules for sharing border lakes and rivers between the two nations, which is governed by a number of bilateral treaties.
"Canadian officials took Mr. Trump's comments seriously, not least because he has already said publicly that he wants to bring Canada to its knees. (...) Canadian officials don't see the Trump administration's threats as empty; they see a new normal when it comes to the United States," the NYT writes.
