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Canada and the United States failed to reach a trade deal on Friday, meaning punishing new tariffs came into effect at midnight.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says Canada declined to finalize a trade under terms agreed earlier in the week.
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Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said there was still “more work to do” to seal a trade deal with the United States just hours ahead of the tariff deadline.
LeBlanc left the table shortly after 7 p.m. Friday, telling reporters waiting outside that his team would continue working “up until the last minute.”
“Our job is not finished,” he said. “Canadian workers, Canadian businesses expect us to do all of this important work.”
Canada’s chief trade negotiator Janice Charette remained at the table.
Trump said earlier on Friday the U.S. “should” be able to reach a deal with Canada. He also said the U.S. is starting on a new deal with Mexico, adding that he only makes “good deals.”
“Much better deals for the United States, both with Canada and Mexico,” he said.
The tariffs were originally set to come into effect just after midnight Wednesday, but that deadline was pushed back until 12.01 a.m. Saturday to allow time to turn the agreed-upon deal into a legal agreement.
In July, Trump had threatened to impose 50 per cent tariffs Canadian products, ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors. Unlike other tariffs, the duties would affect goods that are compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) on trade.
The two countries have wrangled for decades over trade, poking each other over sore spots like Canadian softwood lumber imports and U.S. access to Canada’s protected dairy market.
Trump’s approach to dealing with Canada marks an extraordinary departure from the traditionally cooperative relationship between the two countries.
The U.S. president has hit Canadian goods with tariffs in a push to bring manufacturing back to America, and has repeatedly made inflammatory comments about turning Canada into America’s 51st state.
The Canadian public is fed up. A petition to expel the U.S. ambassador Pete Hoekstra, a Trump ally, has collected nearly 218,000 signatures since July 21. It accuses Ambassador Pete Hoekstra of having “normalized’’ Trump’s talk of annexing Canada, among other complaints.
Nearly 72 per cent of Canada’s goods exports last year went to the United States.
David Wiens, president of Dairy Farmers of Canada, said in a statement Friday that the lack of specific information being provided by the government to key Canadian industries is “troubling,” since they can’t determine the potential impact on their sectors.
“Earlier this week, Minister LeBlanc reaffirmed the government’s defence of supply management,” he said.
“While we appreciated this statement, in the absence of details about negotiation outcomes, we remain concerned that any concessions to the United States could compromise the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of people working in Canada’s dairy sector.”
LeBlanc and Charette have met with Greer in Washington several times this month to hammer out the deal.
LeBlanc told reporters on Thursday that the two sides were “very close” to a deal. The content of that agreement, however, has not been shared publicly.
Concern from news publishers
News publishers are worried about the prospect of the Online News Act being eliminated as part of the trade deal.
“If it were to be given up as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations, the government needs to be extremely sober and clear-eyed about the immediate and catastrophic effect it would have on newsrooms across Canada,” Paul Deegan, CEO of publishers’ group News Media Canada, said in an email.
The Trudeau government passed the legislation in 2023, which requires Meta and Google to compensate news publishers for the use of their content. In response to the law, Meta pulled news from its platforms in Canada, including Instagram and Facebook, while Google has been making payments from a $100-million fund.
Deegan said the money news publishers receive from Google is equivalent to about 1,000 journalism jobs, or “more than a quarter of all newsroom jobs on the publishing side in Canada.”
Greer referenced “digital trade alignment” between the two countries in his brief comments to media on Wednesday but it has not been made clear what he meant.
Canada’s premiers have said Carney asked them to put U.S. booze back on the shelves as part of the deal.
Several premiers have indicated a willingness to comply, but not all.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province was the biggest importer of U.S. alcohol, has yet to comment publicly on the latest proposal. Quebec Premier Christine Frechette said Thursday after a call with Carney that she’s weighing how the deal could play out for her province.
— with files from Associated Press
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