Davos: At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a stark warning about the shifting global landscape, sharply criticizing the way major powers, particularly the United States under former President Donald Trump, have approached international trade and governance.
Carney said, “Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. The old order is not coming back.” He emphasized that the rules-based global system, long relied upon for stability, was always only partially effective. “We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false,” he remarked, highlighting the selective enforcement of trade rules and the convenience-driven exemptions by the strongest nations.
The Canadian Prime Minister further elaborated, “That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. This fiction was useful — and American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods. But this bargain no longer works.”
Carney drew attention to the vulnerabilities exposed by recent crises spanning finance, health, energy, and geopolitics. He noted, “Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”
In response to these challenges, Carney urged countries to adopt a pragmatic approach. Canada, he suggested, must focus on strengthening domestic capacity and diversifying trade partnerships to reduce reliance on any single nation. He also pointed to the declining influence of multilateral institutions like the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, which has forced nations to increasingly act independently.
