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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he’ll meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday, their first face-to-face encounter since he won an election in part because of an anti-Trump message.
“It’s important to get engaged immediately, which has always been my intention, has always been his intention. And I’m pleased to have the opportunity for quite a comprehensive set of meetings that will take place on Tuesday,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa, confirming an earlier report from Bloomberg News.
The meeting will focus on trade issues and the broader relationship between Canada and the US, the prime minister said. The talks will be “difficult, but constructive,” he said, and cautioned that no one should expect an immediate deal on the trade war, which has seen the US place tariffs on Canadian steel, autos and other products and Canada retaliate with its own levies on a range of US-made goods.
The in-person meeting carries high stakes for Carney, who led his Liberal Party to a stunning victory by promising to win the trade war with the US and protect Canadian sovereignty in the face of US aggression. He pushed back against Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st state, saying the old economic and security relationship with the US “is over.”
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Trump had foreshadowed the visit in a Cabinet meeting earlier this week when he said Carney would be coming to the US capital “within the next week or less.” The two men held a phone call on Tuesday, and Carney said Trump did not again raise his desire for US statehood for Canada — an idea that a large majority of Canadians reject.
Trump launched the trade war against Canada by signing an executive order in February that said tariffs were necessary because of Canada’s role in the fentanyl trade. US government data shows that only tiny amounts of the illicit drug flowing into the US is coming from Canada. Carney said Friday it’s not clear why the fentanyl-related tariffs are still in place.
Canada has retaliated against US measures with tariffs on about C$60 billion ($43.5 billion) worth of US goods, in addition to imposing tariffs on US-made automobiles.