U.S. trade adviser Peter Navarro urges Canada to 'negotiate fairly' before August tariff deadline

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White House trade adviser Peter Navarro encouraged Canada to continue negotiating with the U.S. to lower trade barriers after President Donald Trump announced a 35% tariff on its northern neighbour.

“I would urge the Canadian citizens to urge their leaders to negotiate fairly with us,” Navarro said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday.

Navarro’s comments highlight how the administration’s new Aug. 1 deadline for many tariffs to take effect has given countries an extended timeline to secure lower rates from Trump. Navarro reiterated that the tariffs did not cover goods imported under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

The announcement of the tariff rate for Canada on Thursday was a demonstration of how the president this week has intensified his trade rhetoric and moved to unilaterally impose rates on numerous trading partners after months of negotiations.

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While talks with Canada over tariffs were on a separate track than talks being conducted with other trading partners who faced so-called reciprocal tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney had been furiously negotiating to avoid higher duties.

The 35% rate set to take effect in August would be an increase from the current 25% tariff on imports from Canada but the impact is less than initially feared because of USMCA agreement, which covers most of Canada’s exports to the U.S.

Navarro on Friday cast Canada as a challenging negotiator, defending Trump’s tariff agenda as a fair response to what he said were higher duties on American exports and non-trade barriers in other economies.

“We were negotiating with both the Mexicans and the Canadians and the Mexicans were pure joy to deal with,” Navarro said of trade talks in Trump’s first term when the president brokered the USMCA pact. “You know, they were tough negotiators, but they were reasonable, fair negotiators. The Canadians were very, very difficult, and they’ve always been very difficult.”

— With assistance from Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz.