OTTAWA – In a major setback for trade negotiations with the USA, Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced that trade negotiations have been suspended and that Canada's negotiating team will be returning home.
In a statement late Friday night Carney said that should the USA planned 50 per cent tariffs take effect, that Canada would match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect Canadian workers.
The full statement from the Prime Minister is below:
“Over the past 18 months, Canada’s new government has focused on building our strength at home, diversifying our partnerships abroad, and striking a fair deal with the United States.
Our objectives in our trade negotiations have been to:
- Preserve tariff-free access to the U.S. for the vast majority of Canadian business;
- Provide greater stability to our trade relationship;
- Significantly reduce U.S. tariffs on our key strategic industries, so that Canadian businesses in these sectors would have the best access of any in the world;
- Protect our small and medium-sized businesses – the lifeblood of our economy – including by removing the imminent threat of new tariffs; and
- Maintain our flexibility, independence, and sovereignty so we can keep building the Canada we want.
We have recognised from the beginning that America has changed, and that we will not return to our old relationship. Our government understood, before many, that America is altering all its trade relationships. Putting tariffs on its closest allies and charging for access to its vast market.
We have worked in that context. To strike a fair deal that would provide the best access to the U.S. market and greater certainty to Canadian businesses and workers. Throughout, our goal has been to secure the best deal for Canadians, never a deal at any price or on any deadline.
In recent weeks, we made important progress toward improving Canada’s position as having the best deal in the world with the U.S.
However, that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians. As a result, this evening, I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and have directed Canada’s negotiators to return to Ottawa. They have worked hard, in good faith, to defend the interests of Canadians throughout these negotiations up until the very last minute. However, last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.
At midnight tonight, the U.S. intends to impose a 50% tariff on roughly $28 billion of Canadian goods. Canada will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses.
In the coming days, the government will introduce additional measures to support Canadian workers and businesses, building on the nearly $25 billion in support provided over the past 18 months.
These actions complement Canada’s core economic strategy. From day one, we have been focused on building our strength at home and diversifying our partnerships abroad.
That strategy is working. We are advancing nearly $500 billion in major infrastructure projects. In parallel, we are unlocking new export markets for Canadian businesses. Our existing free trade deals already provide Canada with preferential access to 1.5 billion consumers, and we are on track to double that market access by the end of this year.
Canadian economic growth is accelerating, and we are on course to have the second-fastest growth in the G7 over the next two years. Our economy is creating jobs at four times the rate of the United States. Our exports to non-U.S. markets are on track to double over the next decade. Foreign direct investment in Canada is at its highest level in two decades, running at twice the rate of our nearest G7 competitor. Canada now ranks as the most attractive country in the world for infrastructure investment.
Canada has what the world wants. And we will not allow any nation to determine our future. We will set our own course to keep building Canada strong for all.”
