U.S. President Donald Trump's escalating trade tactics are forcing Canada to reconsider economic ties with its neighbor, warned a Japan-based Canadian international affairs expert.
Since taking office, Trump has introduced aggressive tariff policies that have strained relations with Canada, one of the United States' closest allies, announcing a 25 percent additional tariff on Canadian exports earlier this week before agreeing to delay their imposition for 30 days.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Benoit Hardy-Chartrand, a Canadian professor at the Temple University Japan Campus in Tokyo, emphasized that the move may have already had unintended consequences.
"(He) has done something that nobody else was able to do in Canada for years, which is to unite the whole political class of Canada. We've seen the whole political class in Canada united against Trump. So that's quite an achievement by the American President. Canada is one of the United States' closest allies, if not the closest ally. Diplomacy runs on trust, it runs on mutual feelings of benevolence. And that's not what we have seen from the Trump administration so," said Hardy-Chartrand.
"Now, his repeated threats to annex Canada have been just another baffling change or aspect of his new policies. And that is, again, what is causing a lot of anxiety in Canada because they (the U.S.) are our biggest trading partner, they are extremely important to our prosperity, and now that we have a leader like this, there's a lot of uncertainty ahead for the next four years," added the professor.
He stressed that Canada and other countries are now accelerating efforts to diversify their trade partnerships, recognizing that over-reliance on the U.S. may not be worth the risk.
"I think indeed this is going to provide further impetus for countries around the world, especially countries that have longstanding trading partnerships with the United States to try to hedge their bets a little more and diversify their trading partners. We are seeing that in Canada. For a few years, Canadians, Canadian officials have talked about diversifying our trade partners. Right now about 70 percent of Canada's trade goes to the United States. So we're trying to bring that number a little bit further down," he said.
According to the scholar, other U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea are closely watching the U.S.' treatment of Canada and questioning if they too might face similar economic pressure.
"These two countries are looking at the current situation and wondering: If Canada, if even a close ally of the United States is treated as such, that is quite likely that we - South Korea and Japan - are going to be treated as such as well," he said.
The shift could significantly impact global trade, he added, noting that Trump's tactics are contributing to an already fractured global trading system, with long-standing supply chains potentially being reconfigured.
"That might indeed further lead to changes in supply chains, in reconfigurations of different trade partnerships, in trade blocks around the world. And already, of course, as we all know, over the last few years, we've seen an increasing fracturing of the world," said the professor.
"What's going to happen over the next four years may simply add to that global trade instability and reconfiguration of partnerships that we have already been seeing for four years," he said.
Canada, other allies to rethink U.S. trade ties amid Trump's tariff tactic: Canadian expert
Global pharmaceutical giant Novartis is deepening its commitment to China, citing the country's growing role in healthcare innovation and its evolving medical ecosystem as key drivers for continued investment, said Leo Lee, president and managing director of Novartis China.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the sidelines of the 2026 Summer Davos forum in Dalian on Wednesday, Lee said the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical corporation remains confident in the Chinese market and sees significant opportunities in areas including cardiovascular disease, cancer, immunology and neurology.
"We're very excited about the China market. We have been actually in China now for about 140 years, and I think you know very well our name itself, 'Nuohua' [in Chinese], means a commitment to China. I think for us, we focus on four therapeutic areas: cardiovascular disease, treating cancers, immunology, and also neurology. In China, we do see that for a Healthy China 2030, the areas of cardiovascular disease and also managing cancers are areas of high unmet medical needs. So, from that perspective, we're very committed to ensuring that we bring all of our most important medicines to China to support patients and ensure that patients will have the healthiest, highest quality [of life]," Lee said.
Beyond market demand, Lee said China's policy support for innovation and the continued development of its healthcare system have strengthened the country's appeal for global pharmaceutical companies.
"We're very, very positive about the policies in China that are really pro-innovation. We also see that the healthcare system has continuously evolved to mature and to be able to support more and more patients, not only in primary care but secondary and tertiary [care]. So we think China is an incredibly good environment for innovation of medicines," he said.
China's role in the global pharmaceutical industry has also undergone a significant transformation in recent years. Once viewed mainly as a market for innovative medicines and a manufacturing base for generic drugs, the country is increasingly becoming a source of cutting-edge research and drug development.
"If you go back over 10 years, China was traditionally importing a lot of innovative medicines and had an extremely strong base of generic manufacturing. I think over the last 10 years, China has gone through an incredible evolution, and especially in the last two or three years we started to see that 30 percent of all biotech clinical development programs originated in China. So we think China is going to be an incredible engine for driving development of new medicines not only for Chinese patients but also for patients outside of China. From that point of view, we want to be a partner to support Chinese innovation if they want to reach patients outside of China. Within China, we really think that it is important that we continue to expand our research, development, as well as manufacturing, so that Novartis benefits from the incredible ecosystem that exists here today," said Lee.
The event, also known as the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, drew to a close on Thursday in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, highlighting that innovation matters more than ever in an age of accelerating technological change and rising uncertainty, with China playing a pivotal role.
Under the theme of "Innovating at Scale", the three-day forum brought together over 1,700 participants from more than 90 countries and regions to discuss ways to scale innovation into better jobs, stronger economies and new growth opportunities.
Novartis bets on China's growing role in healthcare innovation
