Carney Says US-Canada Trade Negotiations at ‘Intense Phase’

Gantry cranes and shipping containers at the Port of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Saturday, July 12, 2025. US President Donald Trump threatened a 35% tariff on some Canadian goods and raised the prospect of increasing levies on most other countries, ramping up his trade rhetoric in comments that weighed on stocks and boosted the US dollar. Photo by Andrej Ivanov /Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government is still in deep trade talks with the Trump administration despite recent comments from the US president that suggested a deal with Canada wasn’t a priority.

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Carney downplayed President Donald Trump’s claim last week that the US is not focused on Canada and may not reach an agreement on tariffs.

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“It’s a negotiation,” Carney told reporters on Monday. “Take what’s said in the public domain as part of that context.”

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Talks with the US “are at an intense phase,” Carney said, and he pledged to only sign a pact “that’s a good deal for Canada.”

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Still, Carney acknowledged that it remains unlikely Canada can completely negotiate away Trump’s tariffs. On Sunday, the European Union struck a deal that includes a baseline tariff of 15% on most of its exports to the US. That echoed an earlier deal with Japan, which is also facing a baseline 15% US tariff. 

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But Canada has a different trade situation than Europe does with the US, Carney said, pointing to the fact that Europe pledged to buy more American energy products, while Canada is a major energy exporter to its southern neighbor.

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“There are many aspects to these negotiations,” Carney said, speaking in the Atlantic province of Prince Edward Island. “There is a landing zone that’s possible, but we have to get there and we’ll see what happens.”

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Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s US trade minister, is expected to spend much of the week in Washington ahead of Trump’s August 1 deadline, the date when the president promised to raise US tariffs on Canadian imports to 35%, up from 25%.

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LeBlanc and other senior Canadian officials were also in the US capital last week, when they met with Republican lawmakers and highlighted the major investments Canadian pension funds make in the US market.

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For now, Trump has exempted most imported Canadian goods from tariffs when they’re shipped under the rules of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. White House officials have indicated that exemption would continue past August 1, but said the final decision rests with Trump.

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Canada still faces steep US tariffs and duties on autos, steel, aluminum and lumber, and Trump has threatened to impose new tariffs on copper imports as soon as Friday. 

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