President Donald Trump’s renewed threat to impose 100% tariffs on Canadian goods has added fresh uncertainty to North America’s already fragile trade environment, the head of the Polish-Canadian Chamber of Commerce has told TVP World. His words came days after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney argued that so-called middle powers must resist pressure from the world’s largest economies — a message widely interpreted as a response to Trump’s threat to take over Greenland. Canada has also signed recently a trade deal with China. Trump accused Canada of acting as a gateway for Chinese goods into North America, a charge Ottawa has firmly rejected. Speaking to TVP World, Bernhard Otterstein, president of the Polish Canadian Chamber of Commerce, downplayed the likelihood of sweeping tariffs becoming reality. He pointed to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which currently allows roughly 85 percent of trade between the U.S. and Canada to flow tariff-free, arguing that supply chains across the continent are too deeply integrated to unravel overnight. Otterstein described Trump’s rhetoric as part of a broader negotiating strategy ahead of the scheduled USMCA review this summer, rather than a concrete policy shift. He stressed that while Canada has expanded trade ties with China, it has no intention of pivoting away from the United States, its largest economic partner. Beyond trade, the discussion highlighted the growing role of middle powers such as Canada and Poland in an increasingly fragmented global order. Otterstein noted that bilateral cooperation between the two countries—spanning energy security, defense, and cybersecurity—has deepened in recent years, complementing their close ties with Washington. As geopolitical tensions reshape global commerce, he argued, adaptability rather than confrontation will define which economies emerge stronger from the current period of disruption.
