Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet President Donald Trump in Washington next week for talks on a trade war that is hammering Canada’s economy, Carney’s office said Friday.
Canada has not yet reached a broad trade deal with the Trump administration, unlike other major U.S. trading partners, including the European Union.
So far, Trump has maintained tariff exemptions on all goods compliant with an existing pact — the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) — agreed during Trump’s first term.
Carney’s office reiterated Friday that the preservation of that deal means Canada “has the lowest average tariff rate of any American trading partner, with 85 per cent of Canada’s trade with the U.S. being tariff-free.”
But the president’s global, sector-specific tariffs — primarily those targeting autos, steel and aluminum — have hit Canada hard.
Those sectors have faced job losses and forced Carney’s Liberal government to announce billions of dollars in support for the struggling industries.
CUSMA revision talks are scheduled for next year, and Carney has said his team is focused on preserving a good deal for Canada, which also benefits the United States and Mexico.
He will fly to Washington on Monday ahead of the meeting with Trump on Tuesday, the prime minister’s office said, describing the talks as focused “on shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.”
The former high-profile central banker, who only entered politics in January, is facing increasing criticism at home over the enduring impacts of Trump’s trade war.
He successfully campaigned with a pitch that his deep experience in global economic management made him the ideal candidate to defend Canada against Trump’s protectionism.
But opposition parties are upping the pressure over what they call a lack of results.
“It has been a gigantic bait-and-switch we were sold about this brilliant negotiator,” Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said this week.
“Where is it? Point me to a single win,” he said.
