Aug. 4 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada are expected in the coming days to talk trade, according to Ottawa’s U.S.-Canada trade minister.
“I would expect the prime minister will have a conversation with the president in the coming days,” Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said during an interview with CBS‘ Face The Nation on Sunday, after Trump on Thursday increased tariffs on goods from the Great White North not under the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement from 25% to 35% amid trade negotiations between the two countries.
Relations between the once strong partners have frayed under the Trump administration, which has repeatedly imposed tariffs on Canada as punishment over alleged fentanyl making its way into the United States over their shared border and in an attempt to right what the U.S. president sees as an unfair trade relationship. Trump has also publicly toyed with the idea of annexing Canada.
Canada has responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own, while also seeking to strengthen relationships elsewhere and lessening its dependency on the United States. It has also rebutted the accusation that it is contributing to the United States’ opioid crisis, as Carney pointed out in a statement Friday that it accounts for only 1% of U.S. fentanyl imports while implementing policies to continue reducing that amount.
“We were obviously disappointed by that decision,” LeBlanc said Sunday, referring to the imposition of additional tariffs on Thursday amid ongoing trade negotiations. “We believe there’s a great deal of common ground between the United States and Canada in terms of building two strong economies that work well together. That’s been the history of the 40-year free trade agreement that goes back to [U.S. President Roland] Reagan.”
Trump imposed tariffs of 10% on dozens of nations that had not worked out trade deals with the U.S. president beforehand. Canada was in the middle of talks with the United States when the new levies were announced.
LeBlanc added that they are “pleased” the United States is “respecting” the terms of the USMCA as the tariffs do not affect goods that fall under that agreement.
“That’s vital, we think, to the cost of living and affordability, certainly in the United States,” he said.
He was speaking to Face The Nation from Moncton, N.B., but had been in Washington working on a deal, and he left Washington “with a better understanding of the American concerns in the trading relationship.”
“So, we’re prepared to stick around and do the work needed,” he said.
“We remain very optimistic.”