Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump are having direct discussions to reach a trade deal and lift tariffs, according to sources with knowledge of their talks.
It is unclear how often the two have communicated since Carney’s visit to the White House last month, but a source with direct knowledge of the calls said the conversations are aimed at reaching an agreement on the trade war launched by the U.S. against Canada.
The two leaders agreed even before Canadians went to the polls this spring that they would chart a new economic and security deal, but the Canada-U.S. relationship appeared to hit a snag earlier this week when Trump doubled tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.
The tariffs, now at 50 per cent, are a further blow to the Canadian industries that are the U.S.’s biggest supplier of the metals.
Canada posted a $7.1 billion merchandise trade deficit in April — the largest on record — as exports fell sharply in the face of U.S. tariffs. As well, exports to the U.S. fell 15.7 per cent, and imports from the U.S. dropped 10.8 per cent.
In response, Carney only said “intensive discussions” were ongoing and that his government was readying reprisals if negotiations with the United States failed.
Sources, who spoke to CBC News and Radio-Canada on the condition they not be named, now say the two have been talking on the phone about reaching a deal.
There have been no public readouts of the calls.
Earlier this week, Radio-Canada reported that Ottawa is hoping to reach an agreement with the Trump administration before the G7 summit — just 10 days from now in Alberta.
Asked Thursday how close the two sides are to a deal, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he’s not talking about it publicly.
Earlier this week, Trump’s envoy to Canada, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, told a crowd in Toronto the deal “is being settled at the highest levels of the U.S. government with the involvement of the highest elected officials.”
The direct conversations between Carney and Trump were first reported by the Globe and Mail.