Prime Minister Mark Carney and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, are having discussions outside the center of attention to reach a commercial agreement and raise rates.
The sources with knowledge of the conversations confirmed for the first time the calls with CBC/Radio-Canadá and the Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly, then then told journalists that Carney and Trump are talking to each other.
A source, which spoke with the condition that they are not appointed, said that the two leaders have received some phone calls at night and exchanged text messages about trade since Carney’s visit to the White House last month.
There have been no public readings of conversations between Carney and Trump.
The sources said that the conversations aim to reach an agreement on the commercial war launched by the United States against Canada.
Carney and Trump have talked openly about the desire to draw a new economic and security agreement, but the relationship of Canada-United States seemed to affect earlier this week when Trump doubled the tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum.
Tariffs, now 50 percent, are an additional blow to Canadian industries that are the largest metal supplier in the United States.
On Wednesday, Carney only said that “intensive discussions” were ongoing and that their government was preparing reprisals if negotiations with the United States failed.
The sources told CBC/Radio-Canadá who expect some type of trade in Canada-United States for when Trump and Carney are at the G7 summit, only within 10 days in Alberta.
When asked on Thursday how close the two parties are for an agreement, Canada’s Minister of Commerce, Dominic Leblanc, said he is not talking about that publicly.
When asked if the federal government is close to reaching a commercial agreement with the United States, the Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly, said: “We will let the prime minister do their work.”
Speaking in French, Joly confirmed that there have been conversations and said that it is normal during a commercial war to have diplomatic discussions.
“We will not negotiate in public,” he added in English. “We will let the prime minister do his job.”
A White House spokesman told CBC News that Trump was “directly” involved in conversations with Canada, but did not mention Carney specifically.
“Conversations with Canada continue on trade, border security and defense issues. However, any announcement of agreement will come from President Trump himself,” said spokesman Kush Desai in a statement.
An official of the United States Embassy said that “both the president and the prime minister, or the members of his teams, have publicly recognized that there are ongoing conversations. But this is not something that will be negotiated in public.”
Canada registered a commercial merchandise deficit of $ 7.1 billion in April, the largest registered, since exports abruptly fell to US tariffs. In addition, exports to the United States fell 15.7 percent, and the imports of the United States fell 10.8 percent.
Trump’s envoy to Canada, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, told a crowd earlier this week in Toronto that the agreement “is being established at the highest levels of the United States government with the participation of the highest officials elected.”
The direct conversations between Carney and Trump were first reported by the Globe and Mail.
Carney, who campaigned in the promise that he would face Trump, has been under pressure to respond to the last tariff save of the president.
The Canadian Association of Steel Producers described duplicate rates as a “overwhelming blow” for the industry and said the movement prevents Canadian steel from entering the US market. The Association wants to see immediate counter-aroncels in American metals.
Ontario’s Prime Minister Doug Ford, who said he is in daily conversations with the prime minister, requested retaliation if an agreement “in the next few days” can be reached.
“Hopefully they get a deal. But if they don’t, let’s get out of bees,” he told the journalists on Thursday in Queen’s Park.
