Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrapped up a call with his U.S. counterpart midday Wednesday, and there are expected to be more discussions between the two leaders’ teams throughout the afternoon.
It’s the first time the two have spoken since U.S. President Donald Trump launched a trade war yesterday with devastating tariffs on all Canadian goods.
The exact details of what Trudeau and Trump discussed are not yet known.
A spokesperson for Trudeau would only say they spoke about “trade and fentanyl.”
A senior government official told CBC News that the call lasted 50 minutes and Vice-President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were also on the line.
The official said discussions between the two sides will continue throughout the afternoon.
U.S. President Donald Trump justified imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canada in a lengthy speech to Congress, a move Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had earlier described as ‘very dumb.’
Canada is trying to get Trump to back down from his plan to effectively torpedo free trade between the two countries. Trump is supposedly looking to make some changes to the trade action he took just 24 hours ago.
Trump’s steep 25 per cent levy on virtually all Canadian goods has rattled markets and consumer confidence on both sides of the border.
Automakers get 1-month reprieve
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday afternoon that Trump decided to “give a one-month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA,” the trilateral trade deal that Trump signed in his first term.
Leavitt said the changes come after the leaders of America’s Big 3 carmakers, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, called the president with a request for tariff relief.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Trump’s supposed exemption means for Canadian auto exports to the U.S.
“Reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2, but at the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month so they’re not at a disadvantage,” Leavitt said, referring to Trump’s plan to impose even more tariffs next month on countries he thinks are ripping off the U.S.
In a social media post after the call, Trump said he told Trudeau that Canada’s work to tamp down on fentanyl was “not good enough.”
The U.S. government’s own data shows Canada is not a significant source of illegal fentantyl with less than 20 kilograms of the drug seized at the northern border last year. A $1.3-billion border plan launched last year has led to steep declines so far this year.
Canadian border officials actually captured more drugs coming in from the U.S. than what their American counterparts caught going south, according to data from both countries.
Leavitt added that Canada has made the U.S. a “dumping ground not just for illegal aliens but fentanyl” even though U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows far more fentanyl — about 315 kilograms — came into U.S. coastal ports compared to what was seized at the 49th parallel last year.
When a reporter pressed Leavitt on the relatively small amount of fentanyl coming in from Canada, Leavitt said fact-checking the president’s claims is “a little disrespectful for the families in this country who have lost loved ones at the hands of this deadly poison.”
Despite his gripes, Trump said the call with Trudeau ended in a “somewhat friendly manner.”
Trump said he was puzzled about why Trudeau couldn’t say when the next federal election would be, saying it “made me curious, like, what’s going on here?”
There’s a simple explanation for why the prime minister couldn’t say when that vote will happen — it isn’t Trudeau’s decision to make.
The choice of when to go to the polls will fall to his successor, who will be named at Sunday’s Liberal leadership event.
The call comes as the federal government grapples with the usual chaotic situation out of Trump’s Washington. The president’s advisers suggested at different points over the last 12 hours that there could be a compromise on tariffs, only to say later that tariffs will still apply but maybe at a lower rate.
After U.S. stock market plummeted once Trump slapped tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Lutnick appeared on Fox News Business Tuesday saying he’s working on a plan to “meet in the middle” on tariffs, without offering any clarity on what exactly that means.
Speaking to Bloomberg Television on Wednesday morning, Lutnick said “there will be tariffs, let’s be clear.”
“But what we’re talking about is what sections of the market he’ll maybe consider giving them relief until we get to April 2,” he said.
Lutnick says Canada, Mexico ‘trying their best’
Lutnick said the president may land “somewhere in the middle” because Mexico and Canada are “trying their best,” suggesting the U.S. tariff rate may be lower than the current 25 per cent.
Canada doesn’t want any tariffs at all and will push for a full removal to restore free trade, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said.
In an interview with CBC’s The National late Tuesday night, LeBlanc said Canada is “not interested in some sort of reduction of the tariffs. We want the free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico respected.”
He said Canadians are rightfully angry, frustrated and insulted by Trump’s abusive trade actions, and that means the government won’t settle for half measures.
“We’re not interested in meeting in the middle,” LeBlanc said in an interview with CBC Radio’s The Current Wednesday morning.
LeBlanc said Canada’s retaliatory tariffs could be lifted if the U.S. shows some goodwill.
“If the Americans want to talk to us in a constructive way about how we could lift the tariffs, remove them and get back to building an economy that works for both countries, we can,” he said.
In his address to Congress last night, Trump doubled down on the value of tariffs, including on allies like Canada.
“Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it is happening and it will happen rather quickly. There will be a little disturbance, but we are OK with that,” he said.
