Toronto, Sep 29 (AP) Canada's foreign minister walked a fine line at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, pushing back at President Donald Trump's assertions of unfettered US power while trying to avoid provoking her country's biggest trade partner.

Trump famously said at his inauguration that “during every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.” His ensuing actions have followed suit, including calls to make Canada the 51st state and vows to put sweeping 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products.

He has also derided the UN, asking before the General Assembly on September 23, “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” and saying that “not only is the UN not solving the problems it should, too often it's actually creating new problems for us to solve.” He has infuriated Canadians, and Foreign Minister Anita Anand delivered gentle pushbacks on Monday when she told the General Assembly that, "multilateralism remains our best hope to address global challenges rather than rejecting international norms.” Switching to Canada's second official language, French, she said, “Today, the multilateral system is threatened and some countries are turning toward protectionism and unilateralism.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney won the country's election fuelled by Trump's annexation threats and trade war, and he has tried to improve relations ahead of a review of the free trade deal next year. More than 75 per sent of Canada's exports go to the US and Canada recently dropped many of its retaliatory tariffs to match US tariff exemptions for goods covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact.

“The emphasis on both resilience and multilateralism can be understood as a response to the Trump White House's current trade and foreign policies,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal. “The growing level of uncertainty on the global stage is triggering a rethinking of the country's global role in the era of Trump 2.0." (AP) RD RD

Multilateralism reaffirmed against unilateral tariffs; Canada urges cooperation while aligning tariff measures with USMCA exemptions. Canada defended multilateralism at the UN as the means to address global challenges and warned against protectionism and unilateralism. Responding to threats of unilateral tariffs, Canada matched tariff exemptions under the United States Mexico Canada trade pact and rolled back retaliatory duties to manage export dependence and prepare for a forthcoming free trade agreement review.