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U.S. President Donald Trump greets Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House in May. Next week’s trip will be Carney’s second time travelling to the U.S. capital since taking office.JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
Prime Minister Mark Carney is flying to Washington Monday for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump to seek a deal to end or reduce U.S. tariffs.
Mr. Carney will meet with Mr. Trump at the White House Tuesday before returning home the next day, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
This will be the Prime Minister’s second trip to the White House since taking office this year. After his last meeting with Mr. Trump in May, Mr. Carney emerged without any measurable progress in ending a costly trade war but also avoided any sign of conflict with the mercurial U.S. President.
“The Prime Minister’s working visit will focus on shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement Friday.
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Canada, Mexico and the United States are preparing for a scheduled review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, with the Trump administration expected to seek more concessions for U.S. industry.
The Prime Minister’s Office noted Canada and the United States recently launched consultations that will inform the review of the USMCA.
Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada, a lobby group, said Mr. Carney should be seeking closer ties with Mr. Trump. “The President is a relationship man. He believes in relationships,” he said.
Mr. Hyder disagrees with those who feel it’s risky to be talking to the president because of the unpredictability factor. “Our advice has been: it’s more risky not to be talking to the president. You’re better off being there in the room with him than on the outside as a target.”
The U.S. envoy to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, recently said the Trump administration had hoped to negotiate a grander bargain with Canada than simply a renewal of the USMCA – a deal that would have encompassed a multitude of issues, including defence, energy and autos.
Canada is in talks with the U.S. over Mr. Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defence system, which would connect the U.S.’s existing missile defences and expand them, even adding defences in outer space.
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Since returning to office earlier this year, Mr. Trump has hit Canada with a string of tariffs: 50 per cent on steel and aluminum, 25 per cent on autos – with a carveout for U.S. parts – and 35 per cent on any goods traded outside the USMCA, with the exception of oil, gas and potash, which are subject to 10-per-cent tariffs.
On Sept. 30, Mr. Trump imposed a new 10-per-cent tariff on Canadian softwood lumber shipments, raising the total levy on softwood from Canada to more than 45 per cent. Upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities also face new tariffs of 25 per cent, effective Oct. 14.
The Business Council’s Mr. Hyder said Canada needs to remember the significant waiver it currently receives from U.S. tariffs – where 85 per cent of Canadian exports are exempt from levies imposed by Mr. Trump – could be removed.
“We’re in a good place because the President chose to grant exemptions,” he said. “That also means they can be taken away so let’s not get too comfortable here. Let’s recognize that there’s a lot at stake for the Canadian economy, for Canadian businesses and Canadian workers to preserve that access to the United States market. “
He said Canada has to consider joining Mr. Trump’s Golden Dome project.
“I think it’s all just a part of the security umbrella – after all those missiles will fly over Canada if there ever were to be any,” he said.
Mr. Trump earlier this week revived his talk of annexing Canada in a conversation with Canadian officials. In his speech to U.S. generals and admirals at the Marine Corps. base in Quantico, Virginia, the President reiterated that Ottawa wants to join his proposed Golden Dome missile defence system.
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“Canada called me a couple of weeks ago, they want to be part of it, to which I said, ‘well, why don’t you just join our country, you’d become 51, become the 51st state, and you’d get it for free,’” he said in the speech. Mr. Trump did not specify to whom exactly he had spoken to in the Canadian government or when the conversation took place. “I don’t know if that made a big impact, but it does make a lot of sense.”
Mr. Trump added that his tariffs on Canada — 50 per cent on steel and aluminum, 25 per cent on autos and 25 per cent on anything traded outside of the USMCA, except oil and gas at 10 per cent — are hitting the Canadian economy and pushing investment to instead go to the U.S.
“They’re having a hard time up there in Canada now because, as you know, with tariffs, everyone’s coming into our country. We have more investment than we’ve ever had before,” he said. “They’re coming in from Canada, Mexico, from Europe, from all over — AI, auto plants — everybody’s coming back to the United States.”
