While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 5, 2025
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced immediate 25 per cent tariffs on C$30 billion (S$27.7 billion) worth of US imports on March 4.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Canada’s Trudeau tells Trump tariffs are ‘very dumb’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told US President Donald Trump on March 4 that his tariffs on Canadian imports were “a very dumb thing to do” and said Ottawa was striking back immediately at its closest ally.
Mr Trudeau, speaking hours after Mr Trump launched a trade war against Mexico and Canada, announced immediate 25 per cent tariffs on C$30 billion (S$27.7 billion) worth of US imports. If need be, Canada will target another C$125 billion worth in 21 days’ time.
“There is absolutely no justification or need whatsoever for these tariffs,” Mr Trudeau told reporters, adding that Canada would challenge the US measures at the World Trade Organisation and through the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
“Canadians are reasonable and we are polite, but we will not back down from a fight, not when our country and the well-being of everyone in it is at stake,” he said.
US, Ukraine prepare to sign minerals deal, sources say
US President Donald Trump’s administration and Ukraine plan to sign the much-debated minerals deal following a disastrous Oval Office meeting on Feb 28 in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was dismissed from the building, four people familiar with the situation said on March 4.
President Donald Trump has told his advisers that he wants to announce the agreement in his address to Congress on the evening of March 4, three of the sources said, cautioning that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.
On March 4, Mr Zelensky posted on X that Ukraine was ready to sign the deal and calling the Oval Office meeting “regrettable”.
Smoke grenades tossed in Serbia’s Parliament
Serbian opposition lawmakers threw smoke grenades and used pepper spray inside Parliament on March 4 to protest against the government and to support demonstrating students, with one legislator suffering a stroke during the chaos.
Four months of student-led demonstrations, sparked by the deaths of 15 people when a railway station roof collapsed, have drawn in teachers, farmers and others to become the biggest threat yet to President Aleksandar Vucic’s decade-long rule, with many denouncing rampant corruption and incompetence in government.
At the legislative session, after the ruling coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) approved the agenda, some opposition politicians ran from their seats towards the parliamentary speaker and scuffled with security guards.
Taiwan needs to hike defence spending to 10% of GDP
Taiwan needs to dramatically hike defence spending to around 10 per cent of gross domestic product in order to deter a war with China, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become a top Pentagon policy adviser said on March 4.
Mr Elbridge Colby, the nominee to become under secretary of defence for policy, admonished Taiwan for doing too little now, saying its defence spending was “well below” 3 per cent of GDP.
“They should be more like 10 per cent, or at least something in that ballpark, really focused on their defence. So we need to properly incentivise them,” Mr Colby said, at his Senate confirmation hearing.
HK firm offloads Panama ports after Trump pressure
Under fierce pressure from US President Donald Trump, the Hong Kong firm Hutchison said it had agreed to sell its lucrative Panama Canal ports to a US-led consortium on March 4.
CK Hutchison Holdings said it would offload a 90 per cent stake in Panama Ports Company, and sell a slew of other non-Chinese ports to a group led by giant asset manager BlackRock.
Hutchison has for decades run ports at Balboa and Cristobal – on the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the interoceanic waterway. But since coming to office in January, Mr Trump has complained that China controls the canal – a vital strategic asset that the US once ran.
