Canadian officials are facing down the clock on Tuesday as new 50 per cent tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump are set to hit Canada within hours.
Unless a trade deal is reached, a fresh round of sweeping 50 per cent tariffs could hit Canada by midnight.
The Prime Minister’s Office said late Monday that Prime Minister Mark Carney and Trump spoke by phone about the ongoing negotiations. Neither side has disclosed details of the discussion.
Carney was in St. John’s, N.L., on Monday, where he told reporters in French that the trade talks with the U.S. were “delicate” and “intense.”
Ottawa’s efforts are being led by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and chief negotiator Janice Charette, who are in Washington, D.C., trying to work out a deal with their American counterparts.
LeBlanc and Charette met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the U.S. Department of Commerce on Monday afternoon, LeBlanc’s office said.
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This was the sixth meeting between LeBlanc and Greer in the last three weeks, as officials hope to present a draft deal to Carney and Trump for their approval before Wednesday’s tariff deadline.
Trump has vowed to hit Canada with new sweeping 50 per cent tariffs on a wide range of goods in response to what the U.S. calls “discriminatory” measures, including boycotts by Canadian provinces of American alcohol in response to the U.S. trade war launched in early 2025.
Trump signed three executive orders last month, each one using a different justification for the new tariff: the provincial and territorial boycotts on American alcohol products, Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles and auto parts, and quotas on American dairy imports under Canada’s supply management system.
In early 2025, numerous Canadian provinces removed U.S. alcohol from their shelves in response to Trump’s trade war and threats to make Canada the “51st state.”
Canadian officials “seek to reach a comprehensive deal that delivers for businesses, workers, farmers and families on both sides of the border,” LeBlanc’s office said.
Ottawa and Washington are “not close to signing a trade deal” and a “big gap” remains between the two sides, officials told Global News on Friday.
Global News has agreed not to identify the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the trade talks.
Relief for Canada’s softwood lumber industry has emerged as a sticking point in the talks. Two sources said the Americans are not interested in reducing softwood lumber tariffs, which currently sit close to 45 per cent.
The approaching tariff deadline “adds uncertainty” for the Canadian economy and threatens “significant consequences for some affected industries and regions,” Royal Bank of Canada economists Abbey Xu and Nathan Janzen said in a note Monday.
— with files from Global’s Mackenzie Gray
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