Prime Minister Mark Carney takes part in a press conference at Westport House in County Mayo, Ireland, on Sunday.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he does not expect to be talking with U.S. President Donald Trump about trade issues between Canada and the United States during the G7 summit in France.
Both leaders will be at the meeting in the town of Evian, which runs from Monday to Wednesday.
During a news conference in County Mayo, Ireland, on Sunday, Mr. Carney said he expects the principal talks on the issue will continue between key people in the teams now working on the file.
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On the Canadian side, that would be Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Janice Charette, the chief trade negotiator to the United States.
“The right way to do it at this stage will be between the principal negotiators,” said Mr. Carney, on a visit to Ireland that included talks with Micheál Martin, the country’s leader or Taoiseach.
Mr. Carney was responding to a question about whether he expected Mr. Trump would be interested in talking about trade while the two leaders are in France.
The Prime Minister said he expects the G7 meeting to have a heavy geopolitical element to it, given the conflict in the Middle East as well as in Ukraine and other issues.
Mr. Carney’s remarks come as trade talks are escalating between Canada, the United States and Mexico ahead of the July 1 review date for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The U.S. President signed the deal in his first term, but has mused recently about not renewing it.
Mr. LeBlanc told a conference in Toronto last week that he has spoken with his counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, several times lately about how Canada could address U.S. complaints about various Canadian policies.
At the U.S.-Canada Summit hosted by Royal Bank of Canada and the Eurasia Group in Toronto, Mr. LeBlanc said that he expected to see Mr. Greer on the margins of the G7 summit in France.
He said he and Ms. Charette had spent an hour with Mr. Greer a week earlier.
“We’re doing the important work of answering some of the long-standing concerns that the United States has publicly spoken about in terms of non-tariff barriers,” he said at the summit.
He said he had a sense that Mr. Greer and his colleagues saw the progress they had been looking for.
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Mr. LeBlanc noted that he has also talked to the Americans about things Canada wants to address in trade discussions. “It’s not a one-way street,” he said.
The minister said Mr. Greer and Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, have said there are bilateral issues the two countries can discuss while the USMCA talks continue.
“President Trump’s style is not one to give eternal certainty. Our job is to accept that and do what we have to to ensure that Canadian business and the Canadian economy navigate through that,” Mr. LeBlanc said.
“Our job is to ensure that the long-term economic interest of Canada, which is inevitably tied to a successful trading relationship with the United States, is in the best possible position.”
On Sunday, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, when asked about Canada-U.S. trade talks, told a news conference in Ottawa that Conservatives want tariff-free access to the biggest market in the world.
The Official Opposition Leader said that the best approach now would be for Mr. Carney to “bundle up” all of Canada’s leverage using the prospect of a strategic mineral reserve and increased oil exports as leverage.
In exchange for allowing the Americans to buy those things, Mr. Poilievre said Canada could seek an end to tariffs on aluminum, steel, lumber, autos and everything else.
“We would encourage the parties to get to the table and get a deal as quickly as possible because there is very real damage being done on both sides of the border,” Mr. Poilievre said.