Carney tells Trump Canada is not for sale, president praises PM as a 'very good person'
Canada's new prime minister meeting face-to-face with Trump at the White House
Prime Minister Mark Carney stepped into the lion's den Tuesday for his first face-to-face with his U.S. counterpart — a high-stakes White House meeting that comes as bilateral relations are at their lowest point in decades and with a trade war raging.
U.S. President Donald Trump warmly welcomed Carney to the Oval Office, saying the two will discuss some "tough points" during their meeting but he said Carney is "a very talented, very good person."
While respectful of Carney, Trump suggested he is not willing to budge on tariffs.
Asked by reporters if he's still serious about Canada becoming part of the U.S., Trump said he was but acknowledged it's likely a non-starter.
"It takes two to tango," the president said, adding "as a real estate developer at heart" he would love to see the U.S. span from the Gulf Coast to the Arctic Circle.
"I do feel it's much better for Canada," he said.
Carney diplomatically shot down Trump's talk, saying that as a property developer he should know "there are some places that are never for sale."
"It's not for sale and it won't be for sale ever," Carney said.
Despite some of Trump's past heated rhetoric about Canada, the U.S. president was complimentary of the country Tuesday as he sat side-by-side with Carney in the Oval Office. "We're going to be friends with Canada. Canada is a very special place. I love Canada, I have a lot of respect for the Canadians."
Trump also praised Carney's election victory and seemed to take credit for it in part, saying the Liberal Party's turnaround was "one of greatest comebacks in the history of politics."
Trump also signalled he's willing to renegotiate the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), saying "it's good for all countries," but there needs to be some unspecified tweaks.
"We're going to work on some subtle changes, maybe," Trump said, while acknowledging there's nothing concrete on the table at this stage. "We're dealing more with concepts right now."
Carney agreed that the existing trilateral trade deal will "be the basis for a broader negotiation," and those talks will start today.
Trump repeated his oft-cited falsehood that the U.S. somehow "subsidizes" this country by $200 billion a year.
The U.S. trade deficit with Canada — which is largely driven by cheap oil imports — is much smaller than that. A trade deficit is not a subsidy. It just means the U.S. buys more goods from Canada than this country does from them.
And despite trade data that shows the U.S. relies on Canadian goods — notably importing some four million barrels of oil a day — Trump said that he doesn't need "anything" from Canada.
Working lunch in the West Wing
Next on Carney's agenda is a working lunch with Trump in the storied Roosevelt Room in the West Wing.
Both will be accompanied by a cadre of high-level officials. Expected beside Trump is Vice-President JD Vance, a critic of Canada like his boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, — who blasted Canada yesterday as a "socialist regime" — and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, among others.
Carney will have International Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty and Canada's ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, with him along with top bureaucrats.
A senior Canadian government official, speaking to CBC News on background ahead of the meeting, said this is the first of what will likely be more meetings between the leaders as the two sides start the work of crafting a new partnership.
That lunch meeting, beyond the glare of the TV lights, is where the work of getting acquainted and improving relations will begin, the official said.
The two sides will start the work of crafting a new economic and security arrangement now that the prime minister has said the last one is "over."
Carney was setting the bar low even before this meeting began — saying Canadians shouldn't expect to see any "white smoke," a nod to what will happen when a Pope is chosen in Rome, after this sit-down.
Canada is trying to force Trump to back down from his tariff action, which is already having an impact on jobs and Canadian exports to the U.S., with the latest Statistics Canada data showing shipments south of the border are down.
The president has imposed fentanyl-related tariffs on virtually goods that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) to punish Canada for supposedly lax border security. The country is also grappling with Trump's "Section 232" tariffs on Canadian-made steel, aluminum and autos, with some exceptions.
Laura Dawson is a Canada-U.S. relations expert and the executive director of the Future Borders Coalition.
She said there may not be a satisfactory end to these trade tensions until Carney and his team broker a new Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) with Trump, which is up for review next year.
While it may be painful to endure tariffs until then, Dawson said it's in Canada's best interest not to rush into a deal.
"Right now, Trump feels like he has all the cards. If we settle very, very quickly, it wouldn't be a good deal for Canada. You only get sharp and quick deals if the other side gives in," she said in an interview.
Carney is an experienced global player and he will have been well briefed by the diplomats in Washington about a possible standoff, Dawson said.
The president is wedded to tariffs as a revenue-generating tool and a way to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and it may be hard to move him from that position, said Everett Eissenstat, who served as deputy director of Trump's National Economic Council during the president's first term.
"It's unlikely that the relationship will be sorted out within a single meeting, but it's certainly a good start," he said.
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