‘Canadians will be our own best customer’: Carney hits back on new Trump tariffs

Prime Minister Mark Carney says U.S. President Donald Trump’s new 35 per cent tariffs are disappointing but that Canada will continue to develop trade both domestically and overseas in response.

“While we will continue to negotiate with the United States on our trading relationship, the Canadian government is laser focused on what we can control: building Canada strong,” Carney wrote in a statement posted to X on Friday morning.

“Canadians will be our own best customer, creating more well-paying careers at home, as we strengthen and diversify our trading partnerships throughout the world. We can give ourselves more than any foreign government can ever take away.”

• LIVE UPDATES: Canada ‘can give ourselves more,’ Carney says as Trump raises tariff

The prime minister’s comments come following Trump’s Aug. 1 deadline for Canada and other U.S. partners to reach new trade agreements, under threat of yet another round of sweeping import tariffs.

Trump signed an executive order activating tariffs against 68 countries and the European Union Thursday evening. New tariffs of 35 per cent on Canadian exports, effective Friday, exclude products under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA), the White House has said.

An April analysis from RBC Economics estimated that in 2024, 94 per cent of Canadian imports to the United States could be CUSMA compliant and covered by “zero-tariff” product rates.

“The U.S. application of CUSMA means that the U.S. average tariff rate on Canadian goods remains one of its lowest for all of its trading partners,” Carney noted in his Friday statement.

According to the U.S. president, he and Carney spoke about trade negotiations in the days leading up to the Aug. 1 deadline, but were not in contact on Thursday.

Among the justifications Trump has offered in recent months for tariffs on Canada are trade deficits, supply management in Canada’s dairy industry, Canada’s recent announcement of intentions to recognize a sovereign Palestinian state and alleged flows of illicit fentanyl across the Canada-U.S. border.

“Given Canada’s continued failure to arrest traffickers, seize illicit drugs, or coordinate with U.S. law enforcement and Canada’s retaliation against the United States for the President’s actions to address the unusual and extraordinary threat to America, further presidential action is necessary and appropriate to protect American lives and the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” reads a Thursday release from the White House.

In a statement Friday, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Candace Laing described the Trump administration’s written justification for the tariffs as baseless.

“The White House fact sheet should be called a fact-less sheet when it comes to basing trade decisions about Canada on the fentanyl emergency,” she said.

“More fact-less tariff turbulence does not advance North American economic security.”

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other agencies show that only a fraction of U.S. fentanyl imports come from the northern border; a proportion described by one U.S. think tank as “not an important part of this story.”

“Canada’s government is making historic investments in border security to arrest drug traffickers, take down transnational gangs, and end migrant smuggling,” Carney wrote. “We will continue working with the United States to stop the scourge of fentanyl and save lives in both our countries.”

‘Hold out hope’: Poilievre

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party continues to “hold out hope for a deal to end all U.S. tariffs on Canada,” and that the prime minister should “accept nothing short” of an outcome that restores the state of affairs from before the trade war.

“We must also take back control of our economic future by breaking our dependence on the U.S.,” Poilievre wrote in a post to X Thursday evening.

“We call on the Liberals to repeal anti-development laws, and cut taxes on work, energy, investment and home building to make our economy strong, self-reliant and sovereign.”

This is a developing story. More details to come.

With files from The Associated Press