Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has set a new timeline for an unprecedented partnership with the European Union, saying he expects negotiations to conclude in June as Canada seeks to reduce its reliance on the United States amid tensions with President Donald Trump. Carney said Friday that Canadian Cabinet ministers and European commissioners would meet in March to advance negotiations before he attends European Council meetings in June, when he expects the talks to conclude. The proposed relationship would stop short of Canada joining the EU but could make it the bloc's first "associate member," a designation that has no precedent in EU treaties and has faced resistance from some European governments.
"In parallel, we are working towards the deepest possible partnership, short of accession—with Canada becoming the European Union's first Associate Member," Carney told reporters Friday. The fresh timeline emerged at the end of a two-day Canada-EU summit in Montreal, where Carney, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa launched an "Alliance for the Future" aimed at expanding economic, technological and security cooperation. The White House on Friday referred Newsweek to Trump's comments to reporters last month, in which he called the idea of Canada becoming an EU associate member "laughable" and threatened economic retaliation if he viewed the move as hostile.
"If I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things," Trump said. "If it's a bad intention, we'll put very heavy tariffs on Europe." Newsweek reached out to Carney’s office and the European Commission for comment on Friday. The proposed partnership is part of Carney's drive to make Canada less vulnerable to U.S. economic pressure after Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods and repeatedly raised the prospect of Canada becoming America's 51st state.
Relations deteriorated further this summer after U.S.-Canada trade negotiations broke down and the Trump administration imposed 50 percent tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian imports. Ottawa responded with retaliatory tariffs. Carney said at the time that Canada had recognized "that America has changed, and that we will not return to our old relationship." The U.S. accounted for 71.7 percent of Canadian merchandise exports in 2025, down from 75.9 percent the year before, according to Statistics Canada, the country's national statistical agency.
Carney has made diversification a central part of his response to Trump, arguing that economic dependence can leave countries vulnerable to political pressure. That strategy has already pushed Ottawa closer to European allies. Addressing the European Parliament in September, Carney warned that economic integration had become a form of leverage and argued that countries needed sufficient resilience to prevent others from controlling their markets or threatening their sovereignty.
Friday's summit produced more than a timetable for future negotiations. Canada and the EU announced progress on digital trade, European investment in Canadian critical minerals and artificial intelligence as part of their new Alliance for the Future. The two sides concluded substantive negotiations on a digital trade agreement designed to make it easier for businesses to operate across the Atlantic.
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