Washington DC - Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a stern warning for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to stop "virtue signaling" if he wants trade negotiations with the US to continue constructively.

"Prime Minister Carney, in my investment career, I've seen what happens when a technocrat tries to pivot and become a politician," Bessent told CNBC's Sara Eisen on Wednesday while at an event to launch "Trump Accounts."

"It never works out well," Bessent said. "So I would just encourage Prime Minister Carney to do what he thinks is best for the Canadian people, not his virtue signaling, because we do have a USMCA negotiation coming up."

Bessent's threat came as North American countries gear up to renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which allows trade to flow freely between all three countries.

It also comes a week after Carney and President Donald Trump got into a spat at the World Economic Forum, with Carney slamming the US' brutal tariff policies and Trump saying that Canada "lives because of the United States."

"He rose to power on an anti-American, anti-Trump message, and that's not a great place to be when you are negotiating with an economy that is multiples larger than you are and your biggest trading partner," Bessent said in a thinly veiled threat to Carney.

"I would not pick a fight going into USMCA to score some cheap political points. Either you are working for your own political career, or you are working for the Canadian people."

Earlier this week, Bessent backed up Trump's threat to impose 100% tariffs on Canada if it continues to pursue a trade deal with China.

"We can't let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the US," he told ABC's This Weekend.