Carney expects U.S. trade talks to ’intensify’ ahead of August deadline
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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that he sees little evidence a trade deal with the United States that does not include tariffs is possible.
Speaking to reporters on his way into a cabinet meeting, Carney said he expects the trade talks with the U.S. “will intensify” ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline to secure a new agreement, but then in French he said he doesn’t think that a deal can be made without some tariffs.
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“We need to recognize that the commercial landscape globally has changed. It’s changed in a fundamental manner,” Carney said.
“We will continue to focus on what we can most control, which is building a strong Canadian economy, and that’s part of what we’ll be discussing in cabinet today.”
Carney singled out work to make “stronger” auto, aluminum and copper sectors — all industries specifically targeted by American tariffs.
Trump said in a letter to Carney last week that the United States will put a 35 per cent tariff on Canadian goods starting Aug. 1. A White House official later said that new tariff won’t apply to goods that are compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade.
That same official added that formal paperwork had not been produced to establish the new tariff level and Trump had not yet made a final decision about how it would be applied.
Trump said Monday that he saw the letters he sent to Canada, the European Union and Mexico about increased tariffs rates as “the deals.”
“I watched a show this morning and they were talking about, ’Well when’s he going to make the deal?’ The deals are already made. The letters are the deals. The deals are made. There are no deals to make,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Canada has yet to respond formally to the latest threat, or to Trump’s recent moves to impose lofty tariffs on copper imports and double existing levies on steel and aluminum.
Carney and Trump agreed last month to work toward a new trade and security pact by July 21, but the U.S. president unilaterally pushed back the timeline to secure a deal.
The prime minister is also set to meet with Canada’s premiers next week.
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