The Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, has announced that he expects to talk in the coming hours with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, with the aim of trying to halt or soften the entry into force this Wednesday, August 19, of the 50% tariffs on certain Canadian products. Carney has emphasized that the Canadian government is prepared to face any scenario that may arise from this trade standoff with Washington.
"We are negotiating," Carney has indicated to reporters, according to the newspaper "The Globe and Mail," and then stated that these negotiations are being "very intense and delicate," without revealing more details about the conversations.
During the day on Monday, the Canadian Minister of Trade between the US and Canada, Dominic LeBlanc, and the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, held a round of contacts in Washington, in which other senior trade officials from both countries also participated, with the intention of reaching some kind of understanding before the new levies are applied. "We will continue working. Our work is not yet finished," LeBlanc stated after the meeting concluded.
Carney has remarked that his government is studying "all possibilities" and that it has a response designed for each of them, including the introduction of a 50% tariff on a wide range of goods, from wine to hockey sticks and cement, in addition to the automotive sector, a retaliation that could translate into an economic impact of 20 billion dollars (17.280 billion euros).
"President Trump is taking steps to hold Canada accountable for its ongoing discrimination and the unreasonable and unequal treatment it gives to US trade, which has harmed and disadvantaged hard-working Americans," the White House asserted a month ago in the announcement of the new tariffs.
Carney responded that this decision by the Trump Administration was framed within "a series of unilateral trade actions by the United States" described as "measures and threats to Canadian sovereignty."
The US government defended the levies alleging discriminatory treatment by Canada towards exports such as automobiles, alcohol, and dairy products, sectors on which the last-minute talks of the past hours are presumably focused.