LILLEY: Mark Carney's elbows disappear but he's making the right move
The Prime Minister says he will drop tariffs on many American goods to kickstart trade talks
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Mark Carney says there is a time for elbows up in a hockey game and a time for skilled passing and moving the puck.
The Prime Minister made those comments at a Friday afternoon news conference while explaining Canada will drop most retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. in order to help with cross-border negotiations.
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LILLEY: Mark Carney's elbows disappear but he's making the right move Back to video
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“I am announcing today that the Canadian government will now match the United States by removing all of Canada’s tariffs on U.S. goods specifically covered under CUSMA,” Carney said.
Canada will retain 25% tariffs on some American goods such as steel, aluminum and autos. The changes will take place Sept. 1.
This is a major pivot for Carney but the right one – in fact, it’s a move that was overdue. His plan on how to deal with Donald Trump was not working, tariffs have only been going up since Carney took office, and when your plan isn’t working you need to adjust.
The announcement came the day after Carney spoke by phone with President Trump for the first time in two months.
At times as he outlined Canada’s new position, Carney took pains to explain American trade policy.
“They have fundamentally changed. It’s their right. We respect it. They have fundamentally changed their trade policy. They have new objectives,” Carney said.
He listed off raising tariff revenue, protecting strategic industries and encouraging foreign investment as some of the reasons the Americans are changing their trade policy through tariffs and other measures.
The tone and the rhetoric of elbows up and fighting the Americans was gone. In its place was a calm Mark Carney trying to explain not that the U.S. was trying to break Canada, but that we’re in a great position with the Americans.
“We have the best deal of anyone in the world right now with the lowest tariff rate on average, little over five-and-a-half percent versus that 16% average for the world, and in many cases much higher,” Carney said.
Elbows were down
This was not the same Mark Carney who whipped up anti-American, anti-Trump sentiment to win the election in April.
“You know, when you’re late in the game, dropping the gloves and taking the extra penalty might not be the best thing to do,” Carney said.
The Americans have been incredibly irritated that as part of our response to their tariffs, we put retaliatory tariffs on goods covered by CUSMA. That’s something they say they didn’t do outside of sectoral tariffs such as steel, aluminum and auto.
Trump’s Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, said that move was putting the CUSMA deal overall in jeopardy. Another irritant that Hoekstra has consistently raised is the decision by several provinces to pull American booze off the shelves.
According to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office, the issue was not raised when Carney called Ford and Ontario has no plans to put American booze back on store shelves anytime soon.
In a statement released after his talk with Carney, Ford said Canada needs a deal that offers relief for tariff impacted sectors such as steel, auto, forestry and copper.
“If the federal government can’t achieve that, they need to hit back hard against U.S. tariffs and provide additional supports for the workers and businesses in these sectors,” Ford said.
Earlier this week at an announcement in Hamilton, Ford called on Carney to get aggressive with Trump.
“We should hit them back twice as hard. And I’ve said this to the Prime Minister, if you roll over, this guy just keeps beating you and beating you. No, let’s start hitting back, hitting back hard,” Ford said at the time.
Ford’s position of pushing back on the Americans may have sounded like the right policy several months ago – and, in fact, I supported a strong counter-tariff response then – but it hasn’t worked. Ford should shelve the tough guy talk and personal attacks on Trump, which haven’t gone unnoticed south of the border.
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Trump is back to praising Carney
At the Oval Office in Washington, Donald Trump praised Carney’s move, calling it the right one to get talks going again.
“We are working on something we want to be very good to Canada. I like Carney a lot. I think he’s a good, good person. And we had a very good talk yesterday,” Trump said.
Trump made it clear though that his job is looking out for his own country.
“You know, look, I’m fighting for the United States. Canada and Mexico took a lot of our business over the years, over 25-30 years, especially during the Biden years, they took a lot of our business, and it’s basically all coming back into the United States now,” Trump said.
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Back in Ottawa, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said it was good that Carney was finally able to get Trump on the phone. But he was disappointed that once again the PM gave concessions without getting anything in return – something he called a pattern.
Poilievre pointed to Carney backing down on his promise of dollar-for-dollar tariffs, making military concessions, dropping the digital services tax and getting nothing in return on any of those fronts.
“And today, he removed even almost all of the tariffs on the United States and got none lifted from Canada,” Poilievre said.
Poilievre has a point.
He may be making the right move here, but Carney has made several concessions without getting a thing in return.
Carney promised he knew Trump, had worked with him before and could negotiate with him. So far, he hasn’t shown any evidence of that, but thankfully he has realized he needs to change his plans and is now adjusting.
Better late than never.
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