1)(Update) Carney announces that Canada is dropping many retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods

Courtesy Of Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan and Catherine Morrison, August 22, 2025

Canada will drop some retaliatory tariffs on American products to match U.S. tariff exemptions for goods covered under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday.

After meeting with his cabinet, Carney said at a news conference the change will take effect on Sept. 1.

Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on a call on Thursday, and Carney confirmed that Trump assured him the move would help kick-start trade negotiations with the U.S.

Carney said Canada and the U.S. have re-established free trade for the vast majority of goods. He said Canada will retain tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos as it works with the U.S. to resolve issues.

“Indeed, our focus is squarely on these strategic sectors and the future,” he said.

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Carney said the average U.S. tariff rate on the world has jumped from just over two per cent at the end of last year to almost 16 per cent.

“Canada currently has the best trade deal with the United States,” Carney said, noting that the U.S. average tariff rate on Canadian goods is 5.6 per cent and remains the lowest among all its trading partners.

“While it’s different from what we had before, it is still better than that of any other country.”

Speaking to reporters Friday in Washington, D.C., Trump said Carney’s choice to remove tariffs was “nice” and that the leaders would have another call “soon.”

“We had a very good call,” Trump said. “I like him.”

Trump said he was “fighting for the United States” but that he was “working on something” and wants to be “very good to Canada.”

A White House official said in a statement that Canada’s move, was “long overdue.”

The official said they looked forward to “continuing our discussions with Canada on the administration’s trade and national security concerns.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a social media post that he spoke with Carney after the announcement to stress that any agreement with the U.S. needs to provide “relief to our tariff-impacted sectors, including steel, auto, forestry and copper.”

“If the federal government can’t achieve that, they need to hit back hard against U.S. tariffs and provide additional supports for the workers and businesses in these sectors,” Ford said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Carney’s decision to drop the tariffs Friday. He said at a press conference that Carney has shown “weakness” on the world stage and said the move was a representation of his “capitulation and climbdown.”

“His elbows have mysteriously gone missing,” Poilievre said, arguing that Carney has failed to follow through on his election campaign promises.

Poilievre said most countries have a better deal with the U.S. because “none of them have the same dependency on the American economy.”

“We should have tariff-free access to the United States as we had before, and that’s what Mr. Carney promised when he said he would negotiate a win,” Poilievre said. “He should have delivered on his promise.”

Carney said the Canadian government will begin its preparations for the CUSMA review process due next year by launching consultations starting next month. He said the review process can take anywhere between six and 18 months.

Canada imposed 25 per cent tariffs on a long list of American goods in March, including oranges, alcohol, clothing and shoes, motorcycles and cosmetics.

A readout from Carney’s office after Thursday’s call with Trump described the meeting as “productive and wide-ranging.”

It said the leaders talked about trade challenges and the new economic and security relationship between the two countries.

Following his conversation with Trump, Carney said Canada and the United States will “intensify” their discussions to address current trade challenges in strategic sectors and to seize “major immediate opportunities” in trade, investment and security.

“As we develop our new trade relationship with the United States, Canada will continue to take all measures necessary to support Canadian workers, our businesses and our consumers,” Carney said, noting that the government will soon announce a “comprehensive industrial strategy” that protects Canadian jobs, boosts Canadian competitiveness, buys Canadian goods and diversifies Canadian exports.

Carney said the government will also soon select the first in a series of new major projects that will “connect and transform our economy.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said in a statement on Friday that it welcomes the decision to drop some of its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

“This is a step in the right direction and will take some of the pressure off Canadian small businesses as trade talks continue,” said Corinne Pohlmann, the CFIB’s executive vice-president for advocacy.

Pohlmann said many small business owners have said that Canada’s retaliatory measures were almost as damaging as the U.S. tariffs. She said nearly six in 10 small firms reported they were hurt by Canada’s counter-tariffs, with only steel and aluminum tariffs doing more harm.

“Those were not touched today, so the challenges for those businesses remain,” Pohlmann said.

While small firms were in favour of Canadian counter tariffs as the trade war began, Pohlmann said their support has been falling since February.

“Today’s announcement provides some relief going forward; however, businesses have already paid millions of dollars in counter-tariffs,” Pohlmann said. “We urge Ottawa to immediately release its tariff revenue to small businesses directly and indirectly affected by trade disruptions and work quickly to resolve small business requests still tied up in the remissions process.”

— With files from Catherine Morrison and Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington, D.C.

2)(Updated) Carney has ‘productive’ phone call with Trump amid bilateral tensions

Source Canadian Press

By Kelly Geraldine Malone, August 21, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had a “productive and wide-ranging” phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday morning.

“We focused on trade challenges, opportunities, building a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S., and supporting long-term peace and security for Ukraine and Europe,” Carney said in a post on social media.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said Trump and Carney “agreed to reconvene shortly.”

A Trump administration official confirmed the call and said Trump and Carney had discussions about trade. The president has not commented on the conversation.

It marks the first phone call between the two leaders since Trump’s trade deal deadline passed earlier this month and the president pushed up tariffs on Canada to 35 per cent. Those tariffs do not apply to goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade.

The White House said the duties increased because Ottawa did not do enough to curb the flow of fentanyl and pointed to Canada’s implementation of retaliatory tariffs.

U.S. government data shows a minuscule amount of fentanyl is seized at the northern border.

When previously asked about the holdup in Canadian negotiations, Trump said “they have to pay a fair rate.”

Carney and Trump agreed last spring to negotiate a new economic and security partnership following the Canadian election in April. At the G7 leaders summit in June, Carney said they were targeting a late-July deadline. Trump moved that unilaterally to Aug. 1.

Ottawa had dampened expectations of any deal materializing ahead the deadline and Carney has said he’ll only make an agreement that is good for Canada.

Canada is also being hammered by tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper and automobiles.

Earlier Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand had her first official meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington.

Anand and Rubio shook hands in front of Canadian and American flags in a room of the U.S. State Department. Neither responded to questions from reporters.

The State Department said Anand and Rubio discussed efforts to support Haiti’s security, peace negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war and ways to strengthen the Western Hemisphere’s response to China.

The State Department said they also talked about “Hamas’s ongoing obstruction of peace in Gaza.”

Trump last month criticized Carney’s move to recognize a Palestinian state.

The State Department under Rubio has taken significant action to quell criticism of Israel’s actions such as revoking visas for foreign students who voiced support for Palestine and sanctioning officials with the International Criminal Court pursuing cases against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former Israeli defence minister.

Anand on Thursday joined 20 other foreign ministers from Europe, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom in condemning Israel for giving final approval to a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

A joint letter from the foreign ministers said it will “make a two-state solution impossible.”

“We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms,” the letter said.

3) Carney, Ford shift focus to what ‘we can control’ amid U.S. trade uncertainty

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Craig Lord, August 18, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford put the focus on making Canada globally competitive rather than securing a trade deal with the United States as they met in Ottawa on Monday.

Carney and Ford were meeting on Parliament Hill as trade talks with the United States show little signs of progressing.

Ford was asked by reporters after the meeting Monday what he felt the chances were for a tariff-free deal with the United States, but he said U.S. President Donald Trump’s behaviour was “unpredictable.”

“He’ll come out with some cockamamie thing tomorrow that we don’t even know about, right?,” Ford said in response.

“I’ve always said that we can never predict what Donald Trump is going to do, but … we can create the environment and the conditions for companies to come here and invest.”

Trump imposed blanket tariffs of 35 per cent on Canadian products that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement on trade at the start of the month, in addition to tariffs targetting sectors such as steel and aluminum.

Ford went on to speak about the need to use Ontario-made steel from companies such as Algoma in future infrastructure projects like a hypothetical pipeline.

“We have to beat (Trump) at his own game and make sure that we’re more competitive and onshore as many products as possible,” he said.

Ford said that nothing concrete came out of the meeting, but he told reporters that he and Carney are “on the same page.”

“We’re united on the message of, “Let’s start worrying about how we can be competitive here.'”

Carney did not speak to reporters on his way out, but on his way into the meeting, he said the pair will focus on aspects of the Canadian economy that “we can control.”

“We’ll talk about the housing sector, we’ll talk about steel, auto, new sectors of the economy (like) artificial intelligence, what we’re doing in terms of making Canada competitive,” Carney said.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc was also on Parliament Hill Monday morning and did not stop to answer questions as reporters followed him through the hall. Carney said LeBlanc was set to provide an update about the status of trade talks with the Americans.

Ford is in Ottawa for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, which runs until Wednesday.

Trump has been preoccupied in recent weeks trying to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. On Monday he is set to hold a series of meetings at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, several European leaders and NATO’s secretary-general.

Carney is not attending those meetings.

— With files from Sarah Ritchie and Catherine Morrison in Ottawa and Allison Jones in Toronto