THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn/AP - Pool

By Canadian Press

TRADE WAR

Canada, U.S. to negotiate new economic, security relationship after election, Carney says

Mar 28, 2025 | 3:20 PM

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada and the United States will begin comprehensive negotiations for a “new economic and security relationship” immediately after the Canadian election following a Friday morning phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump.

In a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, Carney called the call “constructive” while a social media post from Trump described the discussion as “extremely productive.”

Carney told Trump in the phone call that Canada will be implementing new retaliatory tariffs to protect the Canadian economy and workers next week if the president goes ahead with his plan for “reciprocal” tariffs by increasing U.S. duties to match the tax rates that other countries charge on imports on April 2.

Trump’s social media statement said he and the prime minister agreed on many things, and he would be meeting with Carney immediately after the election to “work on elements of politics, business, and all other factors.”

Carney’s statement said he will be working hard during the election to “earn the right to represent Canada” in the discussions the two countries will have following the vote on April 28.

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When asked about Canada’s plan for retaliatory duties later Friday, Trump said he “absolutely” would respond with large-scale tariffs but his answer mainly focused on the “very good conversation” he had with Carney.

“We had a very good talk, the prime minister and myself,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “And I think things are going to work out very well between Canada and the United States.”

Vice-President JD Vance was more forceful in his response to any retaliatory tariffs. Vance said Canada “doesn’t have the cards” to win a trade war with the U.S. and claimed Canadian leadership had forced American farmers and manufacturers to play by “an unfair set of rules.”

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, also called CUSMA, was negotiated during the first Trump administration to replace the North American Fair Trade Agreement.

Vance made the comments during a controversial trip to Greenland — the semi-autonomous Danish territory has faced annexation threats from Trump.

The call between the prime minister and president was the first conversation between the two leaders since Carney was sworn in on March 9.

Trump’s response was a shift in tone from his statements on Canada in recent months in which he repeatedly threatened Canada’s sovereignty, insisted Canada would be better off as a U.S. state and referred to former prime minister Justin Trudeau as a “governor.”

In his statement Friday Trump referred to Carney as Canada’s prime minister.

Carney’s office said before official discussions begin, Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc would “intensify” conversations with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on concerns during the election.

Carney is scheduled to speak to the media Friday afternoon following a virtual meeting with Canada’s premiers. The Liberal leader has been pulled away from campaigning this week to respond to Trump’s executive order on Wednesday that will slap automobile and auto part imports to the U.S. with a 25 per cent tariff next Thursday.

It’s unclear how Canada will ultimately be impacted by those levies. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said Lutnick indicated auto tariffs won’t include Canadian-made vehicles with 50 per cent or more American parts.

A fact sheet provided by the White House said automobiles imported under CUSMA will only be tariffed on the value of content not made in the United States.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he was glad Trump called it a productive call, but said he wants clarity on issues affecting Quebec in trade disputes, including supply management, softwood lumber, culture and aluminum.

Mayors from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. gathered in Washington Friday morning for a summit amid fears that Trump’s efforts to realign global trade will devastate local economies. The uncertainty caused by Trump’s on again, off again tariffs is already leading to layoffs and pauses on local investment, they said.

“We have many decades of trading history and friendship. So that remains strong,” said Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow. “It’s the back and forth, the chaos, the trade war that is hurting Americans, Canadians, Mexicans — we are basically saying, ‘Please stop it’ and we are saying it in one voice.”

Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said people in his South Carolina city are extremely concerned. They are home to automotive and aeronautics industries that rely on trade.

The packaging company Sonoco Products Co. has already been hit by Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on aluminum and steel, implemented earlier this month, Rickenmann said.

“What we really need is the administration to sit down with the two countries and say, ‘Aright it’s time for fair trade, all the way across, balanced’,” Rickenmann said.

“We are neighbours, we are friends, we are colleagues. We cannot live without each other.”

— With files from Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington