In comments to reporters, the President referred to the Prime Minister by his first name.The Canadian Press
Canada and the United States have agreed to begin comprehensive negotiations on a new economic and security relationship following next month’s election, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.
This followed a call between the Prime Minister and U.S. President Donald Trump Friday – the first time the two have talked since Mr. Carney, who is currently campaigning as Leader of the Liberal Party, took office in Ottawa on March 14.
This agreement paves the way for talks between Mr. Trump and whoever is prime minister after the April 28 Canadian election, a ballot that will select which leader will grapple with the U.S. President’s continuing tariff war against his country’s closest trading partner. The trade dispute, along with Mr. Trump’s repeated suggestion that Canada become the 51st state, has overshadowed the campaign as Mr. Carney and his main rival, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, have each positioned themselves as the best person to respond to the President.
The Prime Minister’s Office, in a readout of the Friday call, acknowledged Mr. Carney must win a mandate first. “The Prime Minister told the President that he would be working hard for the next month to earn the right to represent Canada in those discussions,” the statement said.
Mr. Trump, in a social-media post, described the conversation as “extremely productive.”
Speaking at a Liberal campaign stop Friday in Montreal, Mr. Carney said the scale of Mr. Trump’s efforts to reset American trade relations require a new deal between Canada and the U.S.
“The numbers of tariffs that have been threatened, the uncertainty that’s been created by that, the scale of ambition of what the U.S. administration is trying to do – all of that means that in our judgment, there’s an agreement on the other side that we need to come to,” he said.
Mr. Poilievre’s campaign, when asked about postelection relations between Canada and the U.S., said in a statement that whoever is prime minister after April 28 will be obliged to communicate with Washington.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Poilievre said it’s time to put an end to what he described as “tariff chaos” and he was hopeful for a change in tone from Mr. Trump. “My message to President Trump is that true free trade, without tariffs, will allow both of our economies to separately grow stronger,” he said during a campaign stop in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters on Friday, called the Prime Minister “Mark” and said: “I think things are going to work out very well between Canada and the United States.” Mr. Trump did not refer to Mr. Carney as “Governor,” as he did former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Mr. Trump’s positive characterizations of foreign leaders do not always lead to better treatment. He has repeatedly praised Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum while deriding Mr. Trudeau, but imposed the same tariffs on Mexico as he did on Canada.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that the Trump-Carney conversation was constructive and that the two leaders “agreed to begin comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately following the election.”
Mr. Trump, who wants to use tariffs to force manufacturers to relocate to the U.S., has already caused economic damage and job losses in Canada by imposing 25-per-cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. He has announced 25-per-cent levies on foreign-made vehicles for early April, including those from Canada. He has imposed, and then paused, other broad levies and promised another barrage of tariffs on April 3.
It’s not clear what these postelection negotiations will lead to but Mr. Carney in recent weeks has said Mr. Trump’s tariffs and threatened levies “have called into question the validity” of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that was supposed to safeguard free trade between the three countries. It remains to be seen whether these talks result in a one-on-one trade deal with the U.S., another trilateral deal involving Mexico or any changes to the NORAD defence agreement between Canada and the U.S.
“It’s the preference of Canada that Mexico would be part of the discussions,” Mr. Carney said Friday of future trade talks with the U.S.
The Liberal Leader ruled out making changes to Canada’s protectionist supply management system for dairy, poultry and eggs as part of future negotiations. The federal government protects those farmers from foreign competition by imposing tariffs as high as 300 per cent on imports beyond an exempted level. “It’s off the table,” Mr. Carney said.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Mr. Trump similarly talked of beginning wide-ranging talks after Canada’s federal election.
“It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Mr. Trump wrote.
The Prime Minister’s Office said International Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick would step up conversations “to address immediate concerns” in bilateral relations. Mr. Carney later said Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly would also focus on this.
On Thursday evening, Mr. Carney had told reporters the conversation with Mr. Trump would be “only the beginning of a negotiation, not the end.”
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, however, challenged Mr. Carney’s talk of retaliating against Washington’s new tariffs, saying Canada will not emerge victorious from this trade war. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Greenland, Mr. Vance said Canada has mistreated Americans.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled a 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks starting next week, widening the global trade war he kicked off upon regaining the White House this year in a move auto industry experts expect will drive up prices and stymie production.
Reuters
Referring to “the Canadian leadership threatening retaliatory tariffs against the United States,” the Vice-President said: “As President Trump often says, they just don’t have the cards.”
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine wrote in The Washington Post on Friday that he and other senators plan to force a vote next week on blocking Mr. Trump’s use of emergency powers to enact tariffs on Canada and other countries.
Earlier this week, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that imposes 25-per-cent tariffs on foreign-made autos and some auto parts, a move that threatens to damage Canada’s auto sector, which is deeply entwined with the U.S.
The order states that Canadian-made cars would face the 25-per-cent tariff on the value of their non-U.S. parts, not the entire price of the vehicle.
When he was asked how Mr. Trump has upended the election campaign, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Friday in Toronto that this race is “really different.”
The U.S. President’s threats have generated additional worry and pressure for Canadians, he said.
“We need to get the tariffs removed,” he said. “They’re illegal, unwarranted, unjustified.”
With a report from Bill Curry