Carney returns to Ottawa without a deal to end the U.S. tariffs

WASHINGTON — Mark Carney departed Washington Wednesday with no deal in hand to lift U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods — an outcome that drew both intense criticism during a heated question period and rare acclaim from Alberta’s premier.

U.S. President Trump lavished praise on Carney during a meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday and said the prime minister would leave the meetings “very happy.”

The president showed no signs of relenting on tariffs, however, and no deal was announced.

A readout from the Prime Minister’s Office released Wednesday said Carney and Trump “welcomed the progress achieved to date in building a new economic and security relationship between their nations.”

It said the leaders “identified opportunities for material progress in trade in steel, (aluminum) and energy, and directed their teams to conclude this work in the coming weeks.” It added Carney and Trump also discussed opportunities to co-operate on defence and shared efforts to bolster Arctic security.

Carney has faced increasing pressure to land a deal on tariff relief. He spent the spring election campaign pitching himself as the best person to deal with Trump’s trade war, leaning into the “elbow’s up” movement embraced by Canadians following Trump’s repeated threats of annexation.

“We haven’t seen those elbows since the election,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said during Wednesday’s question period after Carney’s return to Ottawa.

Poilievre accused Carney of “bowing before the president in weakness” by telling Trump in the Oval Office that Canada could make US$1 trillion in investments over five years if the country gets a deal.

Carney’s approach to Trump received plaudits from an unlikely source: Premier Danielle Smith, who has long been critical of the Liberal government’s approach to Alberta.

Addressing the BMO U.S.-Canada summit in Toronto on Wednesday, Smith said “we should be cheering the prime minister on” as he builds relationships south of the border.

“That is how deals get made with this particular president,” Smith said. “And so I am beginning to see from the approach that Prime Minister Carney takes, it may not be ‘elbows up’ but I never thought ‘elbows up’ was going to get us a deal with this particular president.”

Christopher Sands, director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Canadian Studies, said he was hoping the Trump administration would offer a clear signal that it was taking Ottawa’s efforts seriously.

To appease the American president, Carney has dropped many of Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs, paused Canada’s digital services tax, introduced border security legislation and moved to ramp up defence spending.

“A deal was acknowledged to be under discussion with Trump saying he wanted a deal. So, a good meeting,” Sands said in a text. “I am not sure the U.S. gesture was there — Trump would probably say the meeting was the gesture — but there is (room) for that to follow.”

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc stayed behind in Washington to press Canada’s case after Carney returned home. He told reporters at a news conference after Tuesday’s meeting that substantial progress was made in the White House talks this week.

LeBlanc said the two sides are working to “quickly land deals” on steel, aluminum and energy.

“The conversation between the two leaders left us very much with the sense that there’s a desire to see how we can, starting with the steel and aluminum sectors, structure something that would be in the economic and security interests of both countries,” he said.

The meeting showed that Trump respects Carney, said Eric Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, a cross-border consultancy focused on trade, supply chains and government affairs.

“That matters in Trump world,” Miller said. “He doesn’t want to deal with somebody who he doesn’t respect.”

Trump boosted tariffs on Canada to 35 per cent in August but those duties don’t apply to goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA.

Canadian industries are also being slammed by Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum, automobiles and copper. Additional levies are set to hit lumber later this month.

Trump’s comments in the Oval Office indicated an openness to movement on those sector-specific tariffs, Miller said. It shows the president has recognized Carney’s efforts, he added.

“That says to me that in essence the strategy … has worked substantially,” he said. “Because it means that we’re in a position where there’s some prospect of an agreement … and not in this space where the two sides are really talking past each other.”

The president said Tuesday Canada and the U.S. are “working on formulas and I think we’ll get there.”

Miller said it’s unlikely the Trump administration will drop the tariffs entirely and Trump’s comments indicate he’s looking at a tariff rate quota.

Miller said if Carney and his team are able to get some sort of tariff relief, it would help insulate him from claims that he’s fumbled the trade file.

It would also boost confidence in the prospects for reaching a broader agreement with the United States ahead of next year’s review of CUSMA, Miller added.

“I think what Mark Carney’s banking on, to be quite frank, is people aren’t going to care how the deal was done as long as you get a good deal in the end,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2025.

— With files from Lisa Johnson in Edmonton

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press