Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that Canada will continue to pursue “deep negotiations” with the U.S. on resolving issues of trade before resorting to retaliatory measures.
Carney was speaking in Toronto ahead of a scheduled meeting with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has called on the federal government to hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s increasingly escalatory tariffs on several sectors of the global economy that have impacted Canadian industries.
“Premier Ford and I are both interested in results for, in my case, for workers and families across Canada, of course in his case for the province of Ontario,” the prime minister told reporters. “And we’re looking to work to those ends as constructively as possible right now with the Americans.
“There’s times to hit back and there’s times to talk, and right now is the time to talk.”
Carney told reporters he would brief Ford on the U.S. negotiations when the two meet later on Thursday.
Carney and Trump tasked their teams with reaching deals “quickly” on steel, aluminum and energy following their meeting at the White House on Oct. 7, with other tariff-hit sectors like autos expected to follow after further talks.
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The Prime Minister’s Office has said both sides expect work to conclude on those initial deals in the coming weeks.
“We’re engaged in deep negotiations, intensive negotiations, on several sectors of the Canadian economy,” Carney said.
“We want to make progress in those negotiations. I’ll be briefing the premier on the status of those negotiations.”
New U.S. tariffs affecting softwood lumber and furniture went into effect on Tuesday, with additional duties on heavy trucks and pharmaceuticals expected to kick in Nov. 1.
Ford has continued to advocate for a more aggressive approach than what Carney is currently pursuing, threatening to cut off energy and resource exports if the U.S. doesn’t relent on industry-crushing tariffs.
“If we can’t get a deal, we have to hit them back twice as hard,” he told a conference on U.S.-Canada relations in Toronto hosted by BMO and Eurasia Group earlier this month.
In September, Canada lifted its retaliatory tariffs on about $60 billion worth of U.S. goods that were otherwise compliant with North American free trade rules in order to restart the trade talks.
Both countries are due to review the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) next July, with public consultation and study already underway.
“The strategy has to take all of that into account, and deliver the results,” Carney said, suggesting the more conciliatory approach will help inform the CUSMA review.
“We’re starting from a stronger position (on tariffs), but we’re also very acutely aware and very focused on the fact that we can make it better. And so we will do everything we can to make it better.”
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