Canada Seeks EU Associate Membership to Reduce Dependence on US

For nearly four decades, Canada built its economy around closer integration with the United States. President Donald Trump has turned that dependence into leverage, imposing tariffs, threatening Canada's sovereignty and openly seeking to pull Canadian industrial production south. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has moved on. Rather than return to trade talks or wait for the next U.S. president to restore the old relationship, he is urgently building a future in which Canada is less dependent on America. Last week, Carney embraced the prospect of Canada becoming the European Union's first associate member, not as a step toward full membership, but as a way to reduce Canada's dependence on any single country without ceding control over its own decisions. "There is now a price to be paid for access to the United States market," Carney said Sunday, pointing to tariffs, U.S. investment commitments and demands for domestic policy changes. Carney told the European Parliament on Thursday that countries need enough economic strength to keep any one power from dictating their choices.