Prime Minister Mark Carney says negotiations with the U.S. are at an “intense phase,” as U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline to increase tariffs on Canadian goods to 35 per cent fast approaches.
“It’s a complex negotiation,” Carney told reporters on Monday, when asked what message he’s sending to the industries that are anxious about the U.S. threatening higher levies. “You see with the various trade deals that have been agreed by other jurisdictions — European Union yesterday, Japan before, Indonesia, etc., the United Kingdom — that there are many aspects to these negotiations.”
“We’re engaged in them, but the assurance for Canadian business, for Canadians, is we will only sign a deal that’s the right deal, that’s a good deal for Canada,” Carney also said, echoing statements he made last week that his government is prioritizing “the best deal” over a timely one.
Carney made the comments on P.E.I. Monday following an announcement the federal government is cutting the toll to use the Confederation Bridge.
Still looming, meanwhile, is Trump’s threat to increase tariffs to 35 per cent on Friday, the date by which Carney has said the Canadian government is aiming to hash out a new economic deal with the United States.
The new levies will not apply to goods that are covered by the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the White House has confirmed. Still in place, however, are steep tariffs on steel and aluminum, and autos, with Trump also signalling he plans to impose higher duties on copper as of Friday.
While the protracted trade war and the status of negotiations have dominated discussions among Canadian lawmakers — namely during last week’s meetings between Carney and the premiers, and as Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc met with several U.S. senators both in Ottawa and Washington last week — Trump on Friday said his administration hasn’t “been focused” on Canada.
“Aug. 1 is going to come, and we will have most of our deals finished, if not all,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We haven’t really had a lot of luck with Canada. I think Canada could be one where they’ll just pay tariffs. It’s not really a negotiation.”
Today, the prime minister dismissed the president’s comments as a negotiating tactic.
Still, LeBlanc has said Canada is still working toward an Aug. 1 target date to reach a deal, and to that end he is set to return to Washington this week.
Asked Monday whether he should have kept the controversial digital services tax (DST) to earn the revenue from it, Carney said that’s “a hypothetical on a hypothetical.”
Carney dropped the tax late last month after Trump said he’d end negotiations with Canada “effective immediately” over the issue, with the president calling it “a direct and blatant attack” on the U.S. and its technology companies.
“We’ll see where things land in terms of negotiation,” Carney said Monday. “There are pros and cons of that tax, as there are with any tax.”
“It may seem like it’s a long way from a trade discussion at the end of this week,” Carney also said, pointing to other efforts his government has made to reduce the impact of the trade war on Canadians. “What we’re really spending the vast, vast part of our time on is what we can control, and building the country together, bringing the country together, and then building out the country.”
