Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is set to visit Washington on Aug. 26, after Ottawa lifted some retaliatory tariffs on the United States.
LeBlanc will meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and said he hopes to strike a trade deal with the United States that is favourable for Canadians.
On Aug. 22, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will remove tariffs on all goods covered under the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA), while keeping its sectoral tariffs on aluminum, steel, and automobiles.
The changes were announced by Carney following a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Aug. 21 and are set to go into effect on Sept. 1. Carney’s move in lifting various counter-tariffs was greeted by the White House as “long overdue” and by Trump as “nice.”
According to LeBlanc, Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, applied in March on $30 billion of U.S. goods comprising 1,256 products from clothes and food to firearms, were a major sticking point in the discussions that led to Trump raising tariffs on non-USMCA Canadian goods to 35 percent earlier this month.
The White House said that the raised tariffs were due to insufficient measures to stop fentanyl coming from Canada into the United States and due to Canada’s retaliatory tariffs of 25 percent, which applied to numerous U.S. products including some USMCA-compliant goods such as oranges, liquor products, clothing, shoes, motorbikes, and makeup. U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said earlier this month that Canada and China being the only two countries to put in retaliatory measures as one of the reasons for the current trade tensions.
LeBlanc said he is in constant contact with his U.S. counterpart, meeting Lutnick several times in Washington ahead of Trump’s Aug. 1 trade deadline. He says his aim is to secure a bilateral deal that softens the effect of Washington’s sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper, lumber, and autos.
Lifting counter-tariffs also comes ahead of a review of the USMCA set for next year, and LeBlanc has said this makes the United States potentially more agreeable to keeping it broad in scope and continuing to exempt the majority of Canada’s exports from tariffs. Trump has called the deal, which was signed in his first term, “very effective” but has also referred to it as “transitional” and mused “if it’s necessary anymore.”
The Conservatives have criticized the Liberal government for lifting the counter-tariffs while getting “nothing” in return, with leader Pierre Poilievre saying it amounts to “capitulation.”
For his part, LeBlanc said he’s trying to obtain a bilateral deal that could also include U.S. investment in defence and security, while working to ensure Canada gets the best possible deal.
“Our responsibility as the government is to get the best deal we can for Canadian businesses and Canadian workers,” LeBlanc said Aug. 23, adding, “We have to be prepared to sit constructively at a table with the other side of the table and have that conversation.”
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
