Talking Points<\/p>\n
Trade talks between Canada and the U.S. fell apart Friday night, and U.S. President Donald Trump made good on his plan to impose 50 per cent tariffs on roughly US$20 billion worth of Canadian goods
\nThe two sides blamed each other for the collapse of the proposed deal they had been fine-tuning for the last several days
\nPrime Minister Mark Carney promised to match Trump\u2019s new tariffs dollar for dollar, and said the government will offer support to industries that are affected<\/p>\n
The prime minister charged that U.S. negotiators had proposed last-minute changes to the terms of a tentative deal the two sides had been working on. The amendments, he added, were \u201cunfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carney didn\u2019t specify what changes the Americans proposed, but said he\u2019s recalled Canada\u2019s negotiators to Ottawa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, meanwhile, blamed Canada for the failure of the talks. \u201cNew demands and walkbacks of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days,\u201d he said in a statement<\/a> late Friday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n \t \t The collapse of the negotiation means the U.S. will go ahead with 50 per cent tariffs on roughly US$20 billion worth of Canadian goods as of 12:01 a.m. EDT Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carney said in his statement that Canada would retaliate dollar for dollar against the new tariffs. He also said the federal government will extend support for workers and businesses hit by the levies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who had remained uncharacteristically silent in public during the later stages of the trade negotiation, said he supports the plan to fight back. \u201cThe prime minister has my full support for a strong response,\u201d he said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Others\u2014especially business leaders\u2014fear the development signals a major escalation in the trade war.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will be a body blow to North American competitiveness in this self-defeating trade saga. A whopping, non-absorbable tariff is not sustainable or viable for business,\u201d Candace Laing, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement late Friday night. Laing is also a member of the prime minister\u2019s advisory committee on Canada-U.S. economic relations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The abrupt turn follows a week of negotiations in Washington, D.C., including an all-day meeting Friday between Greer and Canada\u2019s chief trade negotiator, Janice Charette, that extended late into the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n The talks had initially gone well enough to convince U.S. President Donald Trump to give Canada a three-day reprieve from the new tariffs he originally planned to impose Wednesday. He announced<\/a> the decision just two hours shy of the midnight deadline for the tariffs to come into effect, saying on social media the two sides had reached a \u201cdeal.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Charette then spent most of the ensuing three days in Washington, hashing out details of the tentative agreement the president had announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump said Canada had agreed to \u201cremove the discriminations or unreasonable and unequal impositions\u201d regarding dairy, motor vehicles and provincial bans on U.S. alcohol. Canadian officials have yet to confirm what concessions Ottawa had offered, or what reprieve the White House had considered for sectors targeted by Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and forestry products.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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