Aug. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada are expected in the coming days to talk trade, according to Ottawa's U.S.-Canada trade minister.
"I would expect the prime minister will have a conversation with the president in the coming days," Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said during an interview with CBS' Face The Nation on Sunday, after Trump on Thursday increased tariffs on goods from the Great White North not under the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement from 25% to 35% amid trade negotiations between the two countries.
Relations between the once strong partners have frayed under the Trump administration, which has repeatedly imposed tariffs on Canada as punishment over alleged fentanyl making its way into the United States over their shared border and in an attempt to right what the U.S. president sees as an unfair trade relationship. Trump has also publicly toyed with the idea of annexing Canada.
Canada has responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own, while also seeking to strengthen relationships elsewhere and lessening its dependency on the United States. It has also rebutted the accusation that it is contributing to the United States' opioid crisis, as Carney pointed out in a statement Friday that it accounts for only 1% of U.S. fentanyl imports while implementing policies to continue reducing that amount.
