TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney signaled Thursday that Canada may hold off on further retaliation against U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest trade measures, calling them “relatively modest” compared to earlier U.S. actions.
The comments came two days after Washington escalated the ongoing trade dispute by banning some Canadian dairy products and motorcycles and most alcoholic beverages after the Canadian retaliatory tariffs took
effect. Trump also moved to shut Canadian products out of large, long-term U.S. government contracts.
Carney said his government was still studying the measures and acknowledged they could have significant consequences for individual companies and industries. But he noted that some of the new U.S. tariffs replaced others that Washington had removed.
“We also recognize that, in the context of other things that the U.S. administration has done ... that these are relatively modest measures,” Carney said at a cabinet retreat in Banff, Alberta.
Derek Holt, an economist at the Canadian bank Scotiabank, said this week the latest U.S. measures looked more like an attempt by the Trump administration to “save face” than a major escalation, with the economic impact on Canada relatively limited.
Carney also said he remains in regular contact with Trump and had spoken with him “a couple of times” in recent days about Ukraine, Iran and other global developments, even as the trade dispute between their countries deepens.
“We continue to have to work with the United States. We can compartmentalize across this,” Carney said. He said those conversations dealt with geopolitical, defense and security issues and did not indicate that trade negotiations had resumed.
Carney said his priority was increasingly to strengthen Canada’s economy rather than simply respond to each new move from Trump.
“The biggest impact we can have here is to focus on what we can control: building at home, diversifying abroad and delivering for Canadians,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford struck a considerably more confrontational tone Thursday, saying he hopes Republicans lose control of both the House and Senate in November’s midterm elections and that voters hold Trump accountable for the trade war.
“Hopefully he’s going to lose the Senate. He’s going to lose Congress. I hope so, and hold him accountable,” Ford said. “But we’ll see how that goes. We aren’t going to interfere in the U.S. election.”
Ford has emerged as one of Trump’s most outspoken Canadian critics, accusing him of trying to strip industry out of Ontario and move it south of the border as the two trade personal insults and threats.
“He’s not reliable at all,” Ford said. “He could make a deal today and then change his mind. And we’ve seen that over and over again.”
Still, Ford said he believes Trump wants an agreement before the midterms and that Canada should return to negotiations as soon as possible.
“I truly believe President Trump wants a deal before the midterms,” Ford said. “I could be wrong, but I think it’s best that we sit down and get a deal.”
Carney also left the door open to renewed negotiations, saying Canada remains ready to return to the table if the talks are conducted professionally and respect Canadian sovereignty.
“We are always ready to sit down” and negotiate, Carney said, adding that he believes “there is a mutually beneficial deal possible that respects our sovereignty and is in the interests of both countries.”
Carney said retaliation remained an option when it served Canadian interests, citing steel as an area where countertariffs had been necessary to protect Canadian companies and workers. But he stopped well short of promising another round of retaliatory measures in response to Trump’s latest action.
Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada last year after Ford’s Ontario government aired an anti-tariff television ad in the United States using former President Ronald Reagan’s criticism of tariffs.
Ford said Thursday that Trump had nevertheless strengthened Canada by forcing it to reduce its dependence on the United States.
“The only two good things Donald Trump has ever done for Canada,” Ford said, were that “he woke us up” and “he united the country like I’ve never seen before.”
