DAVOS, SWITZERLAND — Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a striking speech at the World Economic Forum in which he exhorted countries to band together and speak out against bullies and “hegemons” but didn’t call out any by name.
Carney delivered his starkest speech yet on the state of the world during a plenary session of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
The old, rules-based order is dead and isn’t coming back, Carney declared.
“Today I will talk about the breakdown of the world order, about the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the superpowers is not subject to any constraints,” he began in French.
In his speech, he laid out the dangers of middle powers such as Canada staying silent or closing their economies while “hegemons” and superpowers tear away at the “rules-based international order.”
The first day of the summit was dominated by talk of Trump’s threats to impose 10 per cent tariffs (that would rise to 25 per cent in June) on some European countries and the U.K. if they oppose his bid to take over Greenland.
In many cases, Carney’s comments were obviously directed at the U.S. and President Donald Trump.
“More recently, great powers began using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” Carney declared, presumably about the U.S. and China.
“Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu,” he added, eliciting an “oh” from listeners.
Carney was speaking in front of a crowd of a few hundred politicians, business leaders and journalists during a plenary session on the first day of the WEF’s annual gathering. His speech earned a rare standing ovation from listeners.
The prime minister’s speech echoed the overarching message emerging from the glitzy gathering: the old world in which global superpowers abided by international law and trade rules is dead, replaced by one where they use coercion to ply smaller countries to their will.
“Stop invoking the ‘rules-based international order’ as though it still functions as advertised. Call the system what it is: a period where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion,” Carney said.
But unlike other world leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron and E.U. Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen who explicitly named the U.S. and its president, Carney never uttered the words “United States,” “Trump” or any other country.
Yet in the same speech, he called on other countries to call out powerful states who engage in bullying or coercion.
“Apply the same standards to allies and rivals. When middle powers criticize economic intimidation from one direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the sign in the window,” he said in reference to an earlier metaphor of a shopkeeper maintaining a pro-Communist sign in his store window despite not believing in the message.
In the same breath, the prime minister exhorted other countries to band together and avoid succumbing to the temptation of costly self-sufficiency and protectionism.
In the face of the erosion of once-respected international institutions like the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, Carney said small and middle powers have to rely on each other.
“A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile, and less sustainable,” Carney warned.
He also cautioned allies to try to go it alone in negotiations with superpowers, once again alluding to tariff threats by Trump.
A few countries, such as the U.K., negotiated bilateral deals early in Trump’s presidency after he launched sweeping tariffs against all countries — including the U.S.’s closes allies — last spring.
“When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating,” he said.
“This is not sovereignty. It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination,” he added.
Instead, he called on other countries to follow Canada’s example and strike new international relations to boost their economies and diversify their trading partners.
He also conceded that Canada will not always agree with everything its allies do. He recently stated that when signing a new strategic partnership with China and Qatar, two countries with extremely spotty human rights records.
He said Canada knows that “progress is often incremental, that interests diverge, that not every partner shares our values.”
National Post
cnardi@postmedia.com
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