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Donald Trump’s threats of import tariffs have sent shockwaves through Canada, forcing businesses to question their dependence on the United States — a reassessment that is creating headaches for many sectors.”It was an absolute shock,” Matthew Holmes, vice president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, told AFP. “There’s an incredible anxiety that comes from the unpredictability and the uncertainty.””It got everybody talking in Canada about (how) we can’t trust this partnership anymore,” he added.Earlier this month US President Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, then granted a 30-day reprieve.The pause, however, has done little to reassure Canadian businesses that send more than 75 percent of Canada’s exports to the United States, and who worry that a trade war would lead to a recession and hundreds of thousands of job losses.Canada must prepare for the tariffs by removing barriers to trade between provinces and diversify its export markets, Holmes said. “We need to be ready and have the infrastructure and relationships and start building those out now.”Otherwise, he said, Canadian businesses will be “really, really screwed.”- ‘No quick fix’ -According to a recent survey, nine out of 10 Canadians agree on the need to lessen Canada’s trade reliance on the United States.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently hosted a summit in Toronto that brought business leaders together to discuss ways of growing the Canadian economy, including removing internal trade barriers, diversifying export markets and boosting productivity.Provincial governments and business leaders, he told delegates, must “step up and push hard” to make Canada more competitive, while acknowledging that it has been easy to just sell to the country’s southern neighbor.But that may be easier said than done, according to Robert Gillezeau, an economics professor at the University of Toronto.”The two economies are extremely interconnected with over a trillion dollars in trade between the two countries,” he told AFP, pointing to their close proximity and “longstanding good relations” for how ties developed.”For some sectors, it’ll be a little bit easier” to disentangle from the United States, Gillezeau said.For others, “it’s going to be a mess,” he added. “You can’t just snap your fingers and take that integrated industry and have it work with someone else or have it become fully domestic… There is no quick fix.” The food industry is a case in point.”We’ve frozen our purchases of some American goods and we’re looking elsewhere for alternatives,” explains Mike Bono of Can-Am Food Services.But it is not possible for the company — which is one of the largest distributors of fruits and vegetables in Quebec and Ontario with nearly 3,000 customers including restaurants and hotels — to find substitutes for all of its American offerings.- Interprovincial trade barriers -The removal of interprovincial trade barriers was flagged in a report as a way to boost Canada’s economy as far back as 1940.Ottawa led efforts to dismantle them in 2017 but hundreds of exceptions were kept in an agreement signed by the provinces.Removing these barriers would improve productivity and increase Canadian GDP, but “would take a level of effort and coordination that we rarely see in the federation,” Gillezeau said.Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand, who wants to see these barriers abolished as soon as possible, believes that “in the face of Donald Trump’s repeated threats, we must choose Canada.”She explained that removing the barriers — such as alcohol sales restrictions, different labelling rules, varying professional licensing certifications, and independent dairy marketing boards in each province — could lower prices by 15 percent, boost productivity and inject up to Can$200 billion into the economy.Some are also calling for east-west oil and gas pipeline projects to be revived in order to lessen dependency on US infrastructure. Oil from western Alberta, for example, is currently shipped via a pipeline that dips into the United States before emerging in Ontario.

A US judge on Tuesday declined a request to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from firing federal employees and accessing agency data, a victory for President Donald Trump in his bid to shrink the government workforce.Fourteen Democratic-ruled states had filed suit last week contesting Musk’s legal authority but District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied their emergency request to pause his actions.”Plaintiffs have not carried their burden of showing that they will suffer imminent, irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order,” Chutkan said.DOGE is a free-ranging entity run by Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s biggest donor. The billionaire has taken an assertive role in the new administration, with his agency aiming to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending.His plans have effectively shuttered some federal agencies, sent thousands of staff members home and sparked legal battles across the country.In their suit, the 14 states claimed that Musk and DOGE lacked statutory authority for their actions because he had not been formally nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.”(Musk) exercises virtually unchecked power across the Executive Branch, making decisions about expenditures, contracts, government property, regulations, and the very existence of federal agencies,” they said.In addition, Musk and DOGE have gained access to “sensitive data, information, systems, and technological and financial infrastructure across the federal government,” they added.The 14 states had sought to block DOGE from accessing the data systems of the Office of Personnel Management and the Departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation and Commerce, and from terminating any of their employees.- ‘Considerable uncertainty’ -Chutkan, in her ruling, said “the court is aware that DOGE’s unpredictable actions have resulted in considerable uncertainty and confusion for Plaintiffs and many of their agencies and residents.”But the ‘possibility’ that Defendants may take actions that irreparably harm Plaintiffs ‘is not enough,'” she said.Musk’s cost-cutting spree has been met with legal pushback on a number of fronts and a mixed bag of rulings.A different federal judge last week lifted a freeze he had temporarily imposed on a mass buyout plan offered by the Trump administration to federal workers.In the mass buyout case, labor unions representing federal employees had filed suit to block the scheme masterminded by Musk to slash the size of government by encouraging federal workers to quit.In an email titled “Fork in the Road,” the more than two million US government employees were given an offer to leave with eight months’ pay or risk being fired in future culls.According to the White House, more than 75,000 federal employees signed on to the buyout offer from the Office of Personnel Management.Trump’s executive actions have been challenged in dozens of court cases and the White House has accused “judges in liberal districts” of “abusing their power” to block the president’s moves.The decisions have come from judges nominated by both Republican and Democratic presidents, including Trump himself during his first term.Chutkan, an appointee of Democratic former president Barack Obama, presided over the now-abandoned case against Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The US Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Wall Street billionaire Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary, a key step towards the rollout of President Donald Trump’s “America First” trade agenda, which uses tariffs as a broad negotiation tool.Trump has threatened sweeping levies on US allies and competitors alike, looking to tariffs not only as a way to raise revenue but also pressure other countries to act on US priorities.Lutnick, who was chief executive of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is a close ally of Trump’s and has been a defender of imposing tariffs on US imports.On Tuesday, he was confirmed by a vote of 51-45. A spokesman for Lutnick told AFP that he has stepped down from Cantor.He takes the helm at a department that advocates for US business interests and oversees an apparatus restricting the export of certain technology — including semiconductors — to adversaries, including China and Russia.The role will place him at the frontier of Washington’s tariff and trade agenda too, working with the US Trade Representative’s office.The Commerce Department is in charge of a nearly $53 billion program involving subsidies to stimulate the US chipmaking sector, which Lutnick earlier called an “excellent downpayment” despite stressing the need to review investments.During his confirmation hearing last month, Lutnick backed sweeping tariffs targeting countries rather than specific products and signaled a hawkish approach to Beijing.”We can use tariffs to create reciprocity, fairness and respect,” he told lawmakers.He also denied that tariffs would cause widespread inflation, despite economists’ concerns that duties could add to consumer costs in the short term and weigh on growth in the longer haul.The commerce secretary has a broad agenda to implement, and negotiations with some of the United States’ biggest trading partners to contend with.Trump has unveiled blanket duties of up to 25 percent on immediate US neighbors Canada and Mexico, threatening to snarl supply chains in key sectors like automobiles and setting off a flurry of negotiations.The levies, which Trump said were imposed over immigration and drug smuggling concerns, are due to take effect in early March after a month-long pause as talks continue.Separately, Trump also announced 25-percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from March 12, which officials said would pile atop the hefty rates threatened on Canada and Mexico.Looking ahead, Lutnick has signaled his willingness for broad “reciprocal tariffs” against US trading partners to start as early as April 2.These levies, which Washington said are aimed at correcting “long-standing imbalances” in trade, would be tailored to each country.Officials would consider both the tariffs countries impose on US goods as well as taxes seen as “discriminatory” — such as value-added taxes.

President Donald Trump sniped at Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky Tuesday and effectively blamed him for Moscow’s invasion — even as he said he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks.Trump increased pressure on Zelensky to hold elections — echoing one of Moscow’s key demands — and chided the Ukrainian for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia.The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance towards Russia in a shift that has alarmed European leaders.”I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian reaction.”Today I heard, ‘oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years… You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” he said.Zelensky had earlier Tuesday criticised the US-Russia talks for excluding Kyiv, saying efforts to end the war must be “fair” and involve European countries, while postponing his own trip to Saudi Arabia.The Ukrainian leader’s comments appeared to incense Trump, who proceeded to launch a series of attacks on Zelensky, who has led Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s February 2022 invasion.Asked whether the United States would support demands that Russia wanted to force Zelensky to hold new elections as part of any deal, Trump began by criticising what he said were the Ukrainian’s approval ratings. “They want a seat at the table, but you could say… wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since we’ve had an election,” said Trump.”That’s not a Russian thing, that’s something coming from me, from other countries.”Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term, but has remained in office as Ukraine is still under martial law.- ‘Power to end this war’ -European leaders are increasingly fearful that Trump is giving too many concessions to Russia in his pursuit of the Ukraine deal that he promised to seal even before taking office.But Trump insisted that his only goal was “peace” to end the largest land war in Europe since World War II.Trump said he was “much more confident” of a deal after the talks, adding: “They were very good. Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism.””I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well,” Trump said.The US leader added that he was “all for” European peacekeepers in Ukraine if he can strike a deal to end the war. “If they want to do that, that’s great, I’m all for it,” he said. “I know France was willing to do that, and I thought that was a beautiful gesture,” added Trump, saying that Britain had made a similar offer.The United States would not have to contribute “because, you know, we’re very far away.”Trump stunned the world when he announced last week that he had spoken to Putin, and that the two leaders had agreed to start peace talks and to travel to meet each other in Moscow and Washington.The US president then said they would hold a first meeting, most likely also in Saudi Arabia.Although no date has been announced, when asked if he would met Putin before the end of the month, Trump said “probably.”

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has ordered the firing of all remaining US attorneys nominated by his predecessor Joe Biden.”Over the past four years, the Department of Justice has been politicized like never before,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.”Therefore, I have instructed the termination of ALL remaining ‘Biden Era’ U.S. Attorneys,” he said.”We must ‘clean house’ IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence,” Trump added. “America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System – THAT BEGINS TODAY!”It is standard practice for an incoming president to replace the federal prosecutors, known as US attorneys, nominated by their predecessor.There are 93 US attorneys, one for each of the 94 federal court districts in the country. Two districts share a US attorney.US attorneys are the top federal law enforcement officer in each district.A number of US attorneys nominated by Democrat Biden resigned following Trump’s November election victory in anticipation of being replaced.The Justice Department, which Trump has accused of unjustly prosecuting him, has been the target of a sweeping shakeup since the Republican took office and a number of high-ranking officials have been fired, demoted or reassigned.Among those sacked were members of the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two now-abandoned criminal cases against Trump.The acting US attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York, a Trump appointee, resigned last week after being asked by the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Panama’s government denied Tuesday that migrants deported by the United States who were seen holding up signs to hotel windows pleading for help were being held against their will.Public Security Minister Frank Abrego said the migrants were not being “deprived of their freedom” while they await repatriation.”They are in our custody for their protection,” he said.Police were seen guarding the Decapolis Hotel in Panama City, where women believed to be part of the group held up handwritten signs to journalists below saying “Please help us” and “We are not safe in our country.”According to Abrego, the group includes migrants from China, India, Iran and Vietnam.Those who do not go home voluntarily would be transferred to a shelter in the Darien jungle, near the border with Colombia, while the International Organization for Migration and the UN refugee agency organize their relocation to another country, Abrego said.”We’re providing them with all the necessary medical care and comforts, and we will continue to do so until the last of them leaves our country, which is what was agreed with the United States government,” he added.Panama has complied “with all international regulations,” Abrego said.The minister appeared before the press after The New York Times reported that the migrants had their passports and most of their cellphones taken from them.They were “locked in a hotel, barred from seeing lawyers and told they would soon be sent to a makeshift camp near the Panamanian jungle,” the newspaper said.At least one person at the hotel “tried to commit suicide,” according to the newspaper, which said it had spoken to several people inside who identified themselves as asylum seekers and alleged that they were detained against their will.On his first day in office last month, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southern US border and vowed to deport “millions and millions” of migrants.During a recent Latin American tour by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panama and Guatemala agreed to serve as a bridge for migrants of other nationalities deported by Trump’s administration.On Monday, Costa Rica also agreed to collaborate on such migrant repatriations. 

US President Donald Trump moved Tuesday to increase access to in vitro fertilization, a move likely to be welcomed by many Americans but which risks a backlash from conservatives and the religious right.The Republican leader signed an executive order giving his advisors 90 days to find recommendations for protecting IVF access and “aggressively” reducing out-of-pocket and insurance costs for the treatment.”My Administration recognizes the importance of family formation, and as a Nation, our public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children,” the order stated.”Americans need reliable access to IVF and more affordable treatment options,” it continued. Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, shortly after signing the order, that “I think the women and families, husbands, are very appreciative of it.”The president — whose billionaire top donor and ally Elon Musk has had several children by IVF — has long held conflicting stances on reproductive rights. He frequently boasts about appointing Supreme Court justices who ended federal protections for abortion access in 2022, a seismic move that made him a hero to the anti-abortion movement, which has driven conservative voters to the polls for decades.But he drew fury from that same movement when, during last year’s presidential campaign, he announced that in a second term he would ensure free IVF, and claimed to be the “father of IVF.”At the time Trump voiced worries that Republicans were out of step with voters on the issue. Republicans are divided on fertility treatments such as IVF, with many hailing them as a boost to American families.Others, with strong beliefs that life begins at conception, oppose IVF because the procedure can produce multiple embryos, not all of which get used.Almost every Senate Republican voted against assuring IVF access in a vote in June last year — including then-Ohio senator JD Vance, now Trump’s vice president.Reproductive rights activists had feared that the Supreme Court decision on abortion threatened IVF, especially after a court in Alabama last year ruled that frozen embryos could be considered people, leading to several clinics briefly pausing treatments.Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris had put reproductive rights at the heart of her election platform, warning that Trump’s moves on abortion also jeopardized access to fertility treatments. 

The sweeping tariffs threatened or already imposed by US President Donald Trump risk triggering inflation, market distortions, and even a global recession, China said Tuesday at the World Trade Organization.After returning to office on January 20, Trump hit China, the world’s second-biggest economy, with an additional 10 percent levy on products entering the United States.Trump signed executive orders last week imposing new 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium, due to come into effect on March 12.And he said Tuesday that US tariffs on imported cars would be around 25 percent, providing new information on duties he is expected to unveil around April 2.”The world faces a series of tariff shocks,” said Li Chenggang, China’s ambassador to the WTO, at the first meeting of the year of the global trade body’s decision-making General Council.”The US has imposed or threatened tariffs on its trading partners, including China, unilaterally and arbitrarily, blatantly violating WTO rules. China firmly opposes such measures.”These tariff shocks heighten economic uncertainty, disrupt global trade, and risk domestic inflation, market distortion, or even global recession.”Li went on to say that US unilateralism threatened to upend the rules-based multilateral trading system.- ‘Wrongful’ tariffs -Imposing punitive tariffs on countries with high trade surpluses with the United States has been at the heart of Trump’s economic policy.He paused 25 percent levies against Canada and Mexico for a month after both countries vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and the crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.But Trump went ahead with tariffs on China, which in return imposed retaliatory tariffs targeting US coal and liquified natural gas. Li said: “We cannot lose sight of the root cause of today’s trade turbulence and threats to all members: it is US arbitrary tariffs and unilateral measures.”He urged Washington to withdraw the tariffs and “engage in multilateral dialogues based on equity, mutual benefit, and mutual respect”.A Geneva-based trade official said Washington voiced concerns that China was operating a non-market economic system and habitually breached WTO rules.”The US highlighted the issues stemming from China’s lack of transparency and its disregard for WTO oversight,” the official said.”The US also pointed out that the WTO’s current inability to address China’s market-distorting policies, such as unfair subsidies, significantly diminishes the organisation’s effectiveness.”- ‘Cool heads’ call -WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged the WTO’s 166 members to keep “cool heads”, and keep talking to one another.”The world has changed. We cannot come here to continue doing the same things we’ve been doing,” she said.The former Nigerian finance minister urged countries to use the new trade landscape as an “inflection point” to press on with long-sought reforms to the WTO.The WTO is upgrading its tariff analysis database and will launch the new version on March 4.The General Council meeting continues on Wednesday.

Global stock markets held largely steady on Tuesday as top US and Russian diplomats held their first high-level discussions since Russia invaded Ukraine. The talks, which excluded Europe and Ukraine, ended with Moscow and Washington agreeing to appoint teams to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.”Donald Trump continues to be the dominant force for financial markets,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB. “Trump has ripped up the playbook when it comes to dealing with Russia, and the markets are keeping the faith with the US President for now,” she added.While the Dow finished flat, the S&P 500 nudged to a fresh record following a late-afternoon rally.”It was a mostly lackluster day until the final 10 minutes of trading,” said Briefing.com. “There was a positive bias under the index surface even as major indices traded lower, which acted as an upside catalyst and invited more buying in the final moments of the day.”Europe’s main markets were flat or edged higher, with Frankfurt’s DAX index striking another all-time high as elections approach, with investors hoping a ruling coalition better able to act will emerge.”There seems to be a widespread belief that a global recession will not occur and that the trade war is merely a ‘residual risk’,” CMC Markets analyst Konstantin Oldenburger said in a note to clients, pointing out that cash reserves of funds and asset managers have fallen to their lowest levels since 2010.Defense stocks mostly added to gains after having soared the previous day as European leaders held an informal summit to discuss Ukraine and signaled more financial and military support ahead. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her government would announce plans later Wednesday for a “massive” rearming of Denmark’s military due to the growing threat posed by Russia.Intel surged 16.1 percent following a Wall Street Journal report that rivals Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. were considering bids to purchase key assets from the chip company. Nike was another big winner, gaining 6.2  percent as it announced a joint venture with Kim Kardashian under the NikeSKIMS brand.But US homebuilder stocks retreated following a survey that showed industry sentiment fell sharply in February due to worry about tariffs.Over in Asia, Hong Kong’s stock market soared Tuesday, thanks to a recovery in Chinese tech stocks. That came after a meeting between President Xi Jinping and China’s top business leaders fanned hopes that a long-running crackdown on the private sector is coming to an end.- Key figures around 2130 GMT -New York – Dow: FLAT at 44,556.34 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 6,129.58 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 20,041.26 (close)London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 8,766.73 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 8,206.56 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 22,844.50 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 39,270.40 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.6 percent at 22,976.81 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 3,324.49 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0445 from $1.0484 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2608 from $1.2623Dollar/yen: UP at 152.09 from 151.51 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 82.85 pence from 83.04 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.6 percent at $71.85 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.8 percent at $75.84 per barrelburs-jmb/md

The Trump administration has put an “anti-fraud expert” in charge of Social Security, long a politically untouchable entitlement program, the White House confirmed Tuesday after the previous chief resigned in an apparent clash with Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team.The reported departure of acting commissioner Michelle King was the latest abrupt resignation of a senior official confronted with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as the billionaire takes a scorched-earth approach to federal spending.The details of her exit were not clear, but The Washington Post, which first reported the story on Monday, said it came after officials from DOGE tried to access sensitive data at the Social Security Administration.US media said King had been made acting commissioner in January as President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the agency, Frank Bisignano, was vetted for the post. The Trump administration expects Bisignano “to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks,” according to White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields. “In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner,” he told AFP when asked for confirmation of King’s resignation.That expert is Leland Dudek, who previously headed up Social Security’s anti-fraud office, according to an email he sent to staff late Monday that was seen by AFP. “I will lead this agency in an open and transparent manner,” he promised in the email.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the administration suspects there are “tens of millions of deceased people receiving fraudulent Social Security payments.” Musk has also referred to potential fraud, without providing evidence.Experts have warned that Social Security data is hugely sensitive, raising concerns about Musk taking a sledgehammer to the agency.”SSA has comprehensive medical records of people who have applied for disability benefits. It has our bank information, our earnings records, the names and ages of our children, and much more,” warned Nancy Altman, president of the left-leaning advocacy group Social Security Works.”There is no way to overstate how serious a breach this is. And my understanding is that it has already occurred,” she said.Musk’s DOGE has come in for widespread criticism since Trump took power last month as it rampages through the federal government, slashing staff and programs that it argues are fraudulent and do not align with the president’s agenda.But the drive has run into resistance. Top US Treasury civil servant David Lebryk also resigned in January after refusing to give DOGE access to the department’s vast payments system.And the Post reported Tuesday that a federal prosecutor stepped down after refusing to comply with a White House move to rescind $20 billion in grants for climate and clean energy projects. Republicans have long sought to privatize Social Security and other US entitlement programs such as Medicare, complaining of the massive costs and government oversight involved.But the programs are hugely popular with voters, making any attempts to reform them potential political suicide.