Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney. \u2014 \u00a9 AFP JUNG Yeon-je<\/p>\n
The United States does not get to dictate the terms of upcoming trade talks, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, when asked about reports that Washington wanted an \u201centry fee\u201d before starting negotiations.<\/p>\n
The United States and Canada are set to hold talks on revising a North American free trade agreement, a pact President Donald Trump signed and praised during his first term but now dismisses as \u201cirrelevant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quoting multiple Canadian sources, Canada\u2019s public broadcaster CBC reported Wednesday that Trump\u2019s team wants an \u201centry fee,\u201d or concessions, from Canada before starting talks on revising the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).<\/p>\n
Prominent Canadian politician and former Quebec premier Jean Charest, now a member of Carney\u2019s advisory council on US trade, told French public broadcaster Radio-Canada that Trump is demanding \u201cconcessions before we sit down at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about those reports in Ottawa, and whether Canada should offer concessions in order to persuade the US to talk, Carney said \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a case of the US dictating the terms\u2026It\u2019s not a case of (one country) demanding and the other begging,\u201d he said in French. \u201cIt\u2019s a negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offices of US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the CBC\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
Since taking office just over one year ago, Carney has maintained a defiant tone in response to Trump\u2019s threats, insisting Canada will not buckle when faced with unreasonable trade demands.<\/p>\n
He has also said Canada needs to dramatically reduce its economic and security reliance on the United States.<\/p>\n
In an address to the nation on Sunday, he said: \u201cMany of our former strengths based on our close ties to America have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has imposed punishing tariffs on key Canadian sectors but has so far adhered to most of the USMCA, meaning more than 85 percent of US-Canada trade has remained tariff-free.<\/p>\n
His administration has said it wants major changes to the USMCA in revision talks said to intensify after July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s auto and steel tariffs have hit particularly hard in Canada\u2019s largest province, Ontario, where Premier Doug Ford has retaliated by blocking the sale of all US liquor and wine.<\/p>\n
Lutnick called that ban \u201coutrageous\u201d in congressional testimony on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
But Ford has said he will not waver until all US tariffs are removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t trust President Trump,\u201d Ford said Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney. \u2014 \u00a9 AFP JUNG Yeon-je The United States does not get to dictate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[17,111,113,401,734],"class_list":{"0":"post-16280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mark-carney","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-mark-carney","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-trade","12":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}