U.S. Ambassador Kirsten Hillman and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc in Washington in May. The two officials met with U.S. representatives again this week as Canada pushes for a trade deal with President Donald Trump’s administration.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc is warning that negotiators “have a lot of work in front of us” before concluding a trade deal with the U.S., after Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled that the talks may miss an Aug. 1 deadline.
Mr. LeBlanc, who met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and five Republican Senators over the course of a two-day visit to Washington, said talks with Mr. Lutnick were “productive” and “cordial,” but the minister was circumspect on the prospects for a deal.
“We’ve made progress, but we have a lot of work in front of us,” Mr. LeBlanc told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday. “All of these deadlines are with the understanding that we’ll take the time necessary to get the best deal.”
He said Canada was “only going to be in a position to accept the deal when the Prime Minister decides that it’s the best deal we can get.”
Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., added: “There is a time when the deal is the right deal, and it’s important for us to be in a position to continue negotiating until we get to that point.”
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Mr. LeBlanc said he met with Mr. Lutnick for 90 minutes on Wednesday night and planned to be back in Washington next week. He said his discussions with the Commerce Secretary were about how to “return to the circumstances that existed before the last few months” in the economic relationship between the two countries.
The Intergovernmental Affairs Minister and the ambassador also sat down with Republican Senators Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Todd Young of Indiana, and Tim Scott of North Carolina.
Mr. Carney’s chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, and director of policy, Tim Krupa, accompanied Mr. LeBlanc in his Washington meetings.
Prime Minister Mark Carney played down the importance of a looming Aug. 1 deadline in trade talks with the U.S. on Tuesday, saying the objective is to get the best possible deal for Canadians.
The Canadian Press
U.S. President Donald Trump and Mr. Carney agreed at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., in June to reach a bilateral economic and security deal within a month. That deadline was later revised to July 21. Then, after Mr. Trump threatened more tariffs on Canada and a long list of other countries around the world, he set Aug. 1 as the new deadline.
But Mr. Carney earlier this week suggested that he wasn’t bound by such a date if he couldn’t reach an agreement to his liking. He told reporters that Canada “will not accept a bad deal” just to be finished by Aug. 1.
“Our objective is not to reach a deal whatever it costs. We are pursuing a deal that will be in the interest of Canadians.”
Mr. Carney has also signalled that Canada may have to accept, as part of a deal, that some of Mr. Trump’s tariffs are here to stay, in contrast with Canada’s earlier negotiating position that all of the tariffs had to go.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, also expressed pessimism on Thursday that a deal was close. She met with Mr. Carney earlier in the week in Ottawa.
“I wish that I could say it feels good, that this is all going to be taken care of before the 1st of August, but I’m not sensing that,” she said outside a Senate office building on Capitol Hill.
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The trade deals that Mr. Trump has reached so far in his second term are far more protectionist than the existing U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which contains no tariffs on the vast majority of products.
Mr. Trump’s bilateral agreements with Britain, Vietnam and Japan, for instance, require those countries to lower trade barriers for U.S. products while leaving their exports to the U.S. subject to tariffs. Countries have agreed to these deals to avoid even higher threatened tariffs from Mr. Trump.
Canada has many allies among free-trade-loving Republicans in the U.S. Congress, but Mr. Trump and Mr. Lutnick so far have signalled that they want the U.S. to entirely stop importing cars, steel, aluminum and other goods from Canada.
The Carney government has met U.S. demands on increased military and border spending, on ending a digital services tax, and on appointing a fentanyl czar. But so far this does not appear to have resulted in any concessions at the bargaining table.
Canadian exports are currently getting hammered by Mr. Trump’s 50-per-cent tariffs on steel and aluminum, 25 per cent on autos, 25 per cent on any goods traded outside the USMCA, and 10 per cent on non-USMCA-compliant oil, gas and potash.
The President has threatened to raise the non-USMCA tariff to 35 per cent by Aug. 1 if there is no deal. He has also signalled upcoming tariffs on copper and pharmaceuticals that would hit Canada further.
Mr. LeBlanc said on Thursday that his strategy was to position Canada as being helpful to Mr. Trump’s agenda of toughening borders and taking on China by stopping Beijing from dumping steel into the international market.
“My conversations have focused on how we share so many priorities of President Trump’s administration,” he said.