{"id":172707,"date":"2026-08-18T16:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/172707\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T16:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:53:13","slug":"us-and-canada-hold-last-minute-talks-as-trumps-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/172707\/","title":{"rendered":"US and Canada hold last-minute talks as Trump\u2019s 50%\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Negotiators from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/us-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">U.S.<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/canada\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Canada<\/a> are attempting to reach a truce on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/tariffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">tariffs<\/a> ahead of a 12:01 a.m. Wednesday deadline imposed by U.S. President Donald <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If no agreement is reached, Trump has threatened to levy 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, spanning items from hockey sticks to tongue depressors.<\/p>\n<p>\u2033We are negotiating,&#8221; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Monday, speaking in French. &#8220;The negotiations are very intense and delicate. This is not the time to talk about negotiations in public.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Carney and Trump spoke by phone on Monday afternoon concerning the trade talks, Carney&#8217;s office stated, emphasizing the urgent last-minute push to lock in an agreement before Wednesday&#8217;s deadline.<\/p>\n<p>Dominic LeBlanc, Canada\u2019s minister for U.S. trade, met with Greer on Monday. He was tight-lipped afterward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe work is continuing,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cWe continue to do our job.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The two nations have sparred for decades over trade disputes, clashing over sensitive sore spots like Canadian softwood lumber imports and U.S. access to Canada&#8217;s protected dairy market.<\/p>\n<p>  <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787071993_598_2281267274...jpeg\" alt=\"US President Donald Trump speaking with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney (AFP\/Getty)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"\/><br \/>\n  US President Donald Trump speaking with Canada&#8217;s Prime Minister Mark Carney (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Yet they long managed to remain close allies, friends, and trade partners. Canadian troops fought alongside Americans in Afghanistan after 9\/11. <\/p>\n<p>The 5,525-mile U.S.-Canada border remains undefended, with nearly 330,000 people and $2 billion in commerce crossing daily, while 800,000 Canadians live in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s aggressive stance toward Canada represents an extraordinary departure from historically cooperative bilateral relations. In a bid to relocate manufacturing back to the United States, Trump has hit Canadian products with tariffs while repeatedly making provocative comments about turning Canada into America&#8217;s 51st state.<\/p>\n<p>Canadian citizens are fed up with the rhetoric. A petition urging the expulsion of the U.S. ambassador, a Trump ally, has drawn nearly 218,000 signatures since July 21, accusing Ambassador Pete Hoekstra of helping to normalize talk of annexing Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has placed tariffs at the heart of his second-term economic program. Last year, he applied double-digit import duties globally, claiming the longstanding U.S. trade deficit was a national emergency. In February, the Supreme Court ruled he overstepped his authority, striking down the duties and requiring the government to issue refunds to importers.<\/p>\n<p>Trump quickly sought alternative avenues to rebuild his tariff policy. Last month, he levied 10% to 12.5% import taxes on 59 countries and the European Union \u2014 making up 99% of U.S. imports \u2014 over alleged failures to enforce restrictions against forced-labor imports.<\/p>\n<p>He then reached back to Great Depression-era policies to find a weapon with which to hit Canada, one of his favored targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Negotiators from the U.S. and Canada are attempting to reach a truce on tariffs ahead of a 12:01&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[214,32088,13079,32086,111,116,32089,32087,32090,13731,218],"class_list":["post-172707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-breaking-news","tag-daily-news","tag-global-news","tag-inkl","tag-mark-carney","tag-news","tag-news-app","tag-news-headlines","tag-news-today","tag-today-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172707","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=172707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}