OTTAWA — Mark Carney says his cabinet has left “instructions” for officials to help prepare the next government for upcoming negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
Friday, the Liberal leader put his election campaign on hold for the third time in three weeks to convene a federal Canada-U.S. relations cabinet meeting in Ottawa.
After the meeting, the prime minister told reporters that the meeting was to discuss the whirlwind of tariff announcements by the United States over the last week.
He said the federal government has also begun preparing negotiations for a new trade and security agreement with the U.S. after the April 28 vote.
“We left instructions for officials to ensure that the next government, whichever government Canadians choose, will be in the best possible position for negotiations with the United States. Which, as the president and I have agreed, will began from the start of May,”
Carney told reporters in a brief statement.
He did not take questions.
In French, he specified that the instructions included preparing regulations, statistics and ways to respond to the U.S. administration in order to ensure “effective” negotiations.
During his first call with Trump two weeks ago, Carney said the president and he agreed that both countries should begin negotiations for a new economic and security agreement.
Carney’s comments strongly suggested he believes the Canada-U.S.-Mexico (CUSMA) free trade deal is effectively dead amid the historic trade war between Canada and the U.S.
Friday, Carney also told reporters that the whirlwind of tariffs on nearly all countries announced by Trump in the last week is having a concerning impact on the global economy and on Canada.
“A really marked tightening in financial conditions, the initial signs of slowing in the global economy, impacts that we’re starting to see unfortunately in the Canadian economy, particularly in the Canadian labour market.”
Last week, Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs ranging from 10 per cent to over 50 per cent on all imports depending on their country of origin.
Canada and Mexico were the only countries exempted due to CUSMA and previously announced U.S. border levies of 10 to 25 per cent on all goods not covered by the free trade agreement.
Those tariffs were on top of 25 per cent U.S. tariffs on all foreign-made auto imports, including Canadian-made vehicles not covered by CUSMA.
But after the stock market began cratering and amid concerning trends in the 10-year U.S. bond market, Trump mildly backtracked earlier this week, bringing the “reciprocal” tariffs down to 10 per cent across the board. Canada and Mexico were unaffected by that announcement as well.
On April 9, Canada began enforcing its 25 per cent counter-tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles, which Carney said would stay in place as long as the American border levies remained.
National Post
cnardi@postmedia.com
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