Canada’s trade minister Dominic LeBlanc said on Sunday that his country is prepared to continue working toward a new trade agreement with the US, despite leaving Washington without a deal and facing increased tariffs from the Trump administration. “We’re prepared to stick around and do the work needed,” LeBlanc said in an interview on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.
“We believe there’s a great deal of common ground between the United States and Canada in terms of building two strong economies that work well together,” he said as quoted by CBS News.The White House announced last week that tariffs on Canadian goods not covered under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) would rise from 25% to 35%. The move was justified by concerns over immigration and fentanyl, with the administration claiming Canada has not done enough to address those issues.LeBlanc described the decision as “disappointing” but emphasised that talks would continue. He said discussions with US trade representative Jamieson Greer and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick had been “constructive, cordial conversations.”“We’re encouraged by the conversations with Secretary Lutnick and Ambassador Greer,” he said. “But we’re not yet where we need to go to get the deal that’s in the best interest of the two economies.”The tariff hikes are part of a broader trade crackdown announced by Trump last week, targeting more than 60 countries. Canada, the US’ second-largest trading partner, was the most significant nation affected. In 2024, Canada bought roughly $350 billion in US goods and exported $412 billion to the American market, according to Census Bureau data.In a separate Face the Nation interview on Friday, Greer pointed to Canada’s earlier retaliatory tariffs under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a reason for the increase. “If the president’s going to take an action and the Canadians retaliate, the United States needs to maintain the integrity of our action… so we have to go up too,” he said, reported CBS News.“Our view is the president is trying to fix the terms of trade with Canada, and if there’s a way to a deal, we’ll find it,” Greer added. “And if it’s not, we’ll have the tariff levels that we have.”Responding in a statement Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “disappointed” by the US action, noting that “Canada accounts for only 1% of US fentanyl imports and has been working intensively to further reduce these volumes.”LeBlanc said Sunday that Carney is expected to speak with President Trump “over the next number of days,” describing their relationship as “business-like” and “respectful.”“We understand and respect totally the president’s view in terms of the national security interests. In fact, we share it,” LeBlanc said. “And what we’ve said to our American counterparts is, how can we structure the right agreement where we can both continue to supply one another in a reliable, cost-effective way that preserves jobs essential to the American economy? But the same thing is true, obviously, in Canada as well.”Relations between the two countries have grown increasingly tense since Trump took office in January and floated the idea that Canada could become the “51st state.” Carney rejected the notion during a May Oval Office meeting, saying Canada is “not for sale.”
