Mark Carney

Mark Carney threatened legal action against Cleveland-Cliffs over employment obligations connected to its 2024 takeover of Stelco. The obligations were binding under the takeover approval.

Mark Carney said Canada welcomed the ambition for closer ties with the European Union. He proposed seamless digital trade in non-agricultural goods and services as part of a prospective alliance.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed opening the way for Canada to become the European Union's first associate member. Mark Carney welcomed a proposal for a Canada-EU alliance beyond CETA.

After Trump said a deal could come fairly soon, Carney said a mutually advantageous agreement remained possible, one respecting Canadian sovereignty and cultural institutions, and that Canada was ready to sit down and negotiate. He said he remained in regular contact with Trump and was open to re-engagement if the United States respected Canada's red lines.

Mark Carney said Canada might hold off on further retaliation against the latest U.S. trade measures. The federal government was studying the tariffs and import bans while considering whether to adjust retaliatory tariffs.

The 15 to 50 percent duties on some 700 U.S. products started at 12:01 a.m., with U.S. steel, aluminum and iron, furniture, motorcycles and clothing in the 50 percent bracket and the 25 percent auto counter-tariff still in place. In a video address Carney said there is always a cost to action but it does not come close to the cost of standing still, and that the U.S. demands had shown Washington wanted Canada more dependent, not less.

The Section 338 duties started at midnight on roughly $20 billion of exports including wine, furniture, dairy, cement, clothing and hockey equipment, about 4 percent of what Canada sells to the United States. At a press conference Carney promised dollar-for-dollar retaliation from September 8, concentrated in steel, dairy, appliances, farm equipment, pulp and paper and electronics, and when asked why it felt like going to war, said 'because we were attacked'. The Canadian dollar fell on Monday.

Minutes before midnight Carney suspended negotiations and recalled his team, saying last-minute U.S. changes were unfair and uneconomic. He later named the sticking points: no tariff relief for trucks and a dispute over Canadian content in vehicles, U.S. language restricting Canada's other trade deals, and demands touching French-language and cultural protections. Greer said the deal on the table cut steel, aluminum, auto and lumber tariffs and that Canada had walked back commitments.

With the 50 percent duties due at 12:01 a.m. on August 19, Trump posted that they were paused for three days because the two countries had a deal subject to finalizing documents. A proclamation said Canada had committed to remove the alcohol, dairy and vehicle measures. Carney's statement said substantial progress had been made with important work still to do, and confirmed the postponement to end of day August 21.

Trump revived Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which lets a president impose up to 50 percent duties on a country that discriminates against U.S. commerce, and signed three proclamations targeting Canada's auto tariffs and quotas, the provincial bans on American alcohol and the cheese tariff-rate quotas. Unlike the fentanyl tariffs, the duties applied regardless of USMCA origin, covering goods from wine to hockey sticks to cement, and were to take effect in 30 days. Carney said Canada had merely matched U.S. measures and was ready to intensify talks.

Days after Carney's Davos speech about middle powers and economic coercion, and after Ottawa and Beijing agreed to lower tariffs on Chinese EVs and Canadian canola, Trump posted that 'Governor Carney' would not make Canada a drop-off port for China and threatened 100 percent tariffs if Canada made a deal. Carney said Canada had no intention of pursuing a free-trade agreement with China and that the arrangement was consistent with CUSMA.

After a call with Trump, Carney announced Canada would match the U.S. exemption by removing its tariffs on American goods covered by USMCA, saying the two countries had re-established free trade for the vast majority of goods and that Canada had the best deal of any U.S. partner. The steel, aluminum and auto counter-tariffs stayed. Critics asked whether 'elbows up' had become folding; the White House called the move long overdue.

Instead of the July 21 deal, Carney got a letter posted to Truth Social raising the fentanyl tariff to 35 percent from August 1, citing Canada's retaliation and its dairy and other trade barriers. Trump warned that any Canadian increase would be added to the 35 percent. Carney replied that Canada had made vital progress on fentanyl and would keep defending its workers toward the new deadline.

On June 27 Trump said he was terminating all trade discussions with Canada over the 3 percent digital services tax on U.S. tech companies, due for its first collection on June 30. On June 29 Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne rescinded the tax, and the two leaders agreed to resume negotiations toward a deal by July 21, the deadline set at the G7 summit in Kananaskis.

A week after winning the election on an anti-Trump platform, Carney sat beside Trump for a cordial but pointed first meeting. Trump said there was nothing Carney could say to make him lift the tariffs, and that morning had posted that the United States was subsidizing Canada by $200 billion a year and did not need its cars, energy or lumber.

Six days after the U.S. auto tariffs began, Canada's mirror measure came into force: 25 percent on fully assembled vehicles from the United States that do not meet USMCA rules, and 25 percent on the non-Canadian, non-Mexican content of vehicles that do, with a remission framework for automakers that kept production in Canada. Carney had announced the response on April 3, the day the U.S. tariff started.

The day after Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles, new Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the relationship built on deepening economic integration and security cooperation was over, that the United States was no longer a reliable partner, and that Canada would have to dramatically reduce its reliance on it. The line became the frame for his election campaign and his government's trade strategy.