‘You’re at war when you get attacked,’ Carney says after trade talks collapse

Article content

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said he walked away from a “bad deal” with the United States and that Canada is now “at war” after being “attacked” by steep tariffs on $29 billion worth of Canadian goods going south of the border.

Article content

“We were attacked. You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,” Carney told reporters gather in the West Block foyer on Parliament Hill.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Carney was speaking at a press conference on Saturday morning after suspending trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and then announcing matching retaliatory tariffs. Carney said the retaliatory measures would come into effect on the Tuesday after Labour Day.

Article content

Article content

It is the first time Carney has announced new tariffs on the United States since he was elected prime minister last spring, marking a significant new break in bilateral relations that will have significant repercussions in both countries.

Article content

Carney itemized several flashpoints in the final week of negotiations with the U.S. that led to the collapse in talks, including language on auto industry tariffs and “efforts to restrict our protections of our language, our culture, and in effect, our sovereignty.”

Article content

He also said the U.S. inserted language into the deal “in the last hours” that seemed to restrict Canada’s ability to make other trade deals, which Carney said would “always be unacceptable to this government.”

Article content

The prime minister also said that any deal with the U.S. would be unreliable.

Article content

“Our government understood before many that America would transform all of its commercial relationships, that it would put a series of tariffs on its closest allies, and use economic integration as a weapon. We recognize that sometimes its signature was written in pencil,” said Carney.

Article content

Article content

Carney also hinted at divisions in the U.S. negotiating team that led to last-minute changes in the deal that were unacceptable to Canada.

Article content

Carney said that the Canadian team of negotiators was “unified” but that “you cannot say that about the United States administration.” He said that differences in the Trump administration had been “papered over” until the two countries started drilling down on the finer details of the deal this week.

Article content

Just minutes before a midnight deadline on Friday night, Carney said that Canada was withdrawing from the talks because “last-minute changes” to the agreement made by the U.S. “were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

Article content

The sudden rupture of talks and escalation of the trade war between Canada and its biggest trading partner by far bodes poorly for ongoing Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) talks.

Article content

“This is not good news” for the renegotiation of CUSMA, Carney said in French.

Article content

A sombre looking and sounding Carney was flanked by stoic and exhausted Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Canada’s chief trade negotiator Janice Charette.