Trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada broke down late Friday night just minutes before a midnight deadline, triggering the 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods that Washington had threatened for weeks.
Talks Collapse Hours Before Deadline
President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney had reached an agreement in principle earlier in the week, prompting Trump to put the new tariffs on hold until 12:01 a.m. Saturday while both sides worked out final details. But Carney said Washington subsequently tried to alter the terms of that agreement, prompting him to break off talks and recall Canada’s negotiators from the table.
According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Carney placed the blame for the breakdown squarely on the U.S., saying in a statement that the last-minute changes to Washington’s proposed terms were "unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal."
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer gave a very different account on a conference call with reporters late Friday, telling them it was Canada that caused the deal to collapse by seeking additional concessions, the Associated Press reported. Greer said, "Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days."
