There's more work to do on trade talks between Canada and the U.S., Mark Carney said following a week in which President Donald Trump issued new tariffs and again made a jab at Canada with his 51st state slogan.
But some involved in the trade talks say they’re moving in the right direction, as both Canada and Mexico say they want to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement for another 16 years.
The latest wrinkle to throw the talks off kilter came from Trump, who proposed an additional 10% tariff on nearly 60 countries, including Canada, for not enforcing bans on forced labor in their supply chains.
Carney responded, saying Trump’s concerns are shared by Canada.
"Canada has a very strong legislative regime against forced labor in supply chains," he said. "We don’t want any element of forced labor coming in goods and services and we want to use our influence to eliminate this practice of forced labor and child labor."
In addition, Carney said Ottawa is preparing ways to reinforce the legislation already in place and do even more. Carney added "we’re not going to respond or react to everything he posts," when asked about Trump's 51st state comment.
An expert on Canada-U.S. relations said Trump will do whatever he can to get an advantage and keep Canada off balance.
"This administration is willing to use any leverage it has in order to get Canada or any other country to do what it wants," said Christopher Sands, Director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
And Sands said American trade negotiators appear to be shifting some trade irritants outside the USMCA agreement.
"The good news is that might mean the USMCA could move as far as renewal or that the negotiations could be more constructive going forward," he said. "The bad news is this is designed to keep the U.S. with leverage even if we renew USMCA because we have other issues that we could use to impose tariffs on Canada."
But at the heart of the negotiations, there may be a certain amount of resentment towards Canada.
"Canada’s approach has been different," said U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer. "They like China, retaliated against the United States. Two countries in the world retaliated against us, the People’s Republic of China and Canada. So they’re just in a different spot."
The Canadians are not yet in formal talks with Washington — the U.S. is dealing first with Mexico. Canada trade minister Dominic Leblanc said he wants the USMCA renewed for another 16 years and suggested there can be a way forward.
"We presented a number of specific proposals to ambassador Greer that we think are good in the broader context of the North American economy and respond to some long standing issues that the United States has raised with us," he said. "I’m eternally optimistic. I think it’s in the economic interest of North America to commit to that trilateral framework for another 16 years."
While Leblanc might be optimistic, that isn’t shared by all Canadians. The question many are asking is what concessions will Ottawa have to make to get a deal and if those concessions are worth it given the economic damage already done to Canada’s auto, steel and aluminum sectors.
