Canada ready for a trade deal with US that benefits both, Carney says

Carney says Canada is ready for a deal that benefits both Canadian and US businesses and workers.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government is ready to sign a trade deal with the United States that benefits both countries, adding that any agreement would need to have stability and credibility.

“The deal that’s possible, that’s in the interests of Canadian workers, families and businesses, is also the deal that is in the interests of American families, American businesses, American consumers, and … we’re ready to sit down and strike that deal when the Americans are ready,” Carney told reporters on Thursday in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

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Carney’s comments come after trade negotiations between the US and Canada collapsed last month when talks were down to the wire. Since then, the US has imposed 50 percent tariffs on $20bn worth of Canadian goods, and Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs on a similar amount will come into effect next week. The US has also threatened 50 percent tariffs on all Canadian cars and car parts from January 1.

Carney dismissed recent comments by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Canada walked away from a trade deal because of domestic politics, saying in response to a question, “I don’t think, with all respect, appointed, unelected cabinet members in the United States are experts on Canadian politics.”

Carney suggested there had been a recent softening in the US approach to any trade deal that could spur further discussions.

“There were a few issues that the United States was arguing right up to the last hour,” he said, describing it as an “our way or the highway” attitude before talks broke down last month. “Now, they’re not,” he said. “So all of a sudden, they don’t care about Canadian language or culture and those elements. Well, if they didn’t care, they shouldn’t have kept them in the deal,” Carney said. “It’s good. We welcome that.”

Shortly after Carney spoke, US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that it was “very good for Canadian Politicians like Prime Minister Mark Carney to make President Donald J. Trump ‘the enemy.'” He warned the country’s economy would then collapse and be “Worse than anything that has ever happened to a Canadian politician”.

Shifting exports

The US is Canada’s largest trading partner, and nearly 80 percent of its exports went there historically. But since Trump unleashed a wave of tariffs on the country last year, Ottawa has been working on reducing that dependence.

The US accounted for 66.35 percent of Canada’s total exports in July, down from 69.39 percent in June and 72.64 percent a year ago, according to data from Statistics Canada on Thursday.

However, Canada’s import dependence on the US has only narrowed to 59 percent in the last 12 months compared with 62 percent in 2024, the data showed.

On Thursday, Carney also announced plans to spend 4.7 billion Canadian dollars ($3.4bn) to build and maintain more than 300 Via Rail passenger rail cars in Canada, using facilities in Quebec and Thunder Bay, a shift away from importing them from the US.