June 18 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday he and his team had a series of discussions on trade issues with U.S. officials at the G7 summit in France this week, including talks with President Donald Trump.
“I had a number of conversations with the president in parallel in the last few days at the G7 on a range of issues, including some of the commercial aspects,” Carney told reporters at an event in Vancouver.
Carney described the talks as “a series of technical conversations” that were “very detailed.”
Trump said on Wednesday that the United States would do better without the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade and that he would prefer not to have a new one, but added that he was open to doing it.
The three countries need to approve a renewal of their existing agreement by July 1 or signal their intention to exit the pact, a process that would take 10 years and would buy time for alterations.
Carney said “it’s no secret” that Trump has been unhappy with the agreement, but added there are a number of issues that Canada and the U.S. can work on, including trade in forestry products.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Caroline Stauffer )