Ottawa/CMEDIA: Canada’s Prime MInister Mark Carney and the US president Doanld Trump reportedly discussed Thursday current trade challenges, opportunities and shared priorities.
Carney’s officials described discussion between them as a “productive and wide-ranging conversation.”
They also spoke about “long-term peace” in Ukraine and Europe and agreed to meet again soon.
Launching the trade war in Feb with an initial slate of sweeping tariffs, Trump said it was in response to border concerns, accusing Canada of allowing fentanyl to cross into the United States.
The border-related tariff applies to virtually all Canadian exports to the U.S. that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
In addition to the border-related tariffs, Trump has levied punishing “section 232” tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, automobiles and copper, levies that have caused economic dislocation on both sides of the border.
On Aug. 1, when Carney and Trump failed to reach a new deal, Trump increased levies to 35 percent tariffs on Canadian goods.
Trump has also imposed global sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper and automobiles.
Meanwhile several Canadian provinces have removed the US alcohol from liquor store shelves.
The Canadians have reduced travel south of the border.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government wasn’t willing to accept a bad deal from the Americans.
“We have always said that we would not accept just any agreement. We would accept an agreement that was in the interests of workers in the Canadian economy. And at the end of the day, that agreement was not yet in sight,” LeBlanc said after the Aug. 1 deadline.
Trump and Carney discused Thursday on inking a new economic and security deal.
The free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, is also up for review in 2026.
Anand meets with Rubio
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, meanwhile, met with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday.
Anand and Rubio discussed ending the Russia-Ukraine war and overcoming “Hamas’s ongoing obstruction of peace in Gaza,” according to a summary from the U.S. Department of State.
Anand also joined Thursday 20 other foreign ministers from Europe, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom to condemn Israel for approving a settlement project in the occupied West Bank.
A joint letter from the foreign ministers said it will “make a two-state solution impossible.”
