Trump Tariffs: Canada Optimistic On Making A Deal With US, Says Minister

Canada is confident of reaching a trade deal with the US after scrapping most of its retaliatory tariffs, according to a senior minister in Mark Carney’s government.

“We’re optimistic that we can work with President Trump and his administration and come to an agreement that can be beneficial to the economy of both countries,” Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-US trade, said in a Bloomberg Television interview Friday. He cited the conversations he has been having with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as well as Carney’s communications with President Donald Trump.

Earlier on Friday, Carney announced that Canada will end counter-tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of US goods imposed under his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, saying Trump indicated this would restart trade talks that have stalled.

“This was an important step in terms of getting us to that conversation,” LeBlanc said. The move helps lay the groundwork for a possible renegotiation of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, he said. Talks with the US administration have also included discussion of investments, the minister added, without giving much detail.

Canada has received no indication that US steel and aluminum tariffs would come down, however, LeBlanc said. Trump raised them to 50% in June. Canada matched Trump’s earlier import taxes on the metal with a 25% counter-tariff, but hasn’t increased those duties since then.

Canada is uniquely exposed to the specific sectors Trump has tariffed, which also include car-making, because they apply to “precisely the sectors in which our economies are the most integrated,” LeBlanc said. He said he’s been making the argument to the White House that the two neighboring nations “don’t as much sell things to each other, but build things together and sell them around the world.”