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Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at an announcement in Toronto, on Wednesday.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney says that Canada is ready to get tougher with the United States if there is no trade deal before President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs takes effect later this month.
Canada’s goal, Mr. Carney said, is to get all of Mr. Trump’s sectoral tariffs, including on autos, dealt with.
“The tone is pretty tough. We are going to do everything that would be necessary if there isn’t a deal on Aug. 19,” the Prime Minister said on Wednesday at an unrelated announcement in Toronto, adding later: “The time to get tougher will be if there is a moment where there isn’t a deal with the Americans.”
Mr. Carney did not specify what specific retaliatory measures he is weighing, saying only that Canada “has options.”
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Janice Charette, Canada’s chief negotiator, are in Washington for the second time in as many weeks as they seek to drive negotiations forward. Mr. LeBlanc’s office said the pair met with Jay Timmons, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, a U.S. industry group, on Tuesday, as well as Republican senators Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister said he had also had direct conversations with the Americans and there were “real negotiations, constructive negotiations on several issues.”
Carney rules out using energy as leverage in U.S. trade talks
The Globe and Mail reported earlier this week that negotiators have revived a proposal from last year in which Canada would accept export quotas on steel and aluminum in exchange for Mr. Trump taking off his 50-per-cent tariffs on the metals, imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Talks have been less detailed on autos.
But Mr. Carney said the goal is still to get a deal that covers all of these tariffs.
“Canada has been very clear. We want all 232s addressed, all strategic sectors,” he said. “Steel, aluminum, autos, forest products.”
He added later that autos are “very much at the core of what we’re talking about.”
Robyn Urback: Carney would rather concede to Trump than risk short-term economic pain
Mr. Trump last month announced the latest round of tariffs, under Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, on US$20-billion of Canadian exports, including alcohol, dairy and electronics. These levies, which begin Aug. 19, have had the effect of lighting a fire under the previously stalled negotiations.
After that announcement, Mr. Carney said that “everything is on the table” as he considered how and whether to retaliate in the event the tariffs take effect. Last week, however, he reversed course, ruling out restricting oil and gas exports to the U.S. as a countermeasure. The Prime Minister said he didn’t “see the value” in putting oil and gas on the table in talks because “people trust us” to deliver the goods.
Among other things, the U.S. is demanding more access to Canada’s supply-managed dairy market, and that Canadian retaliatory measures for previous levies , including provincial bans on U.S. alcohol and auto counter-tariffs, be lifted.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said that he wants interim agreements with Canada and Mexico resolving such issues before the end of the year. After that, he said, talks would turn to larger structural matters such as auto content rules in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, potentially next year.
Making such a deal without lifting Mr. Trump’s 25-per-cent auto tariffs, however, would be tough for Canada to swallow.
