Feds make concessions on Trump’s terms, looking to cool tariff war

Ottawa has confirmed the Canadian government accepts President Donald Trump’s terms that Canada reopen a 2019 trade pact to resolve tensions.

Cabinet’s concession to address American grievances was confirmed Wednesday, ahead of a cabinet delegation to Washington, DC on Thursday. The delegation is to show “Canada is ready,” said Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, per Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Obviously we think they should respect the agreement President Trump signed, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement,” LeBlanc told reporters.

“In the agreement itself there is a provision to have a review in 2026. It’s not a renegotiation, it’s a review.”

“If one of the three parties wants to at some point begin a process of that review earlier then of course Canada would be ready. We have always said the best approach is a coherent conversation that looks at all of these issues.”

“The conversation will be around lowering the temperature and focusing on the process the president set up.”

The Canadian delegation is to meet US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who yesterday imposed an “illegal” 25% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum exports.

The Department of Finance in a legal notice said the tariffs were a flagrant violation. “US tariffs would be a direct and flagrant violation of its market access obligations under the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement as well as its commitments at the World Trade Organization,” the department wrote in a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement.

LeBlanc said Canada must make peace with Trump.

“These continued tariff measures and the necessary and appropriate response that comes from Canada is not a constructive path to be on,” he said.

“If you are racing to the basement, there is no prize for being the first person to get to the basement. It doesn’t feel like the path we want to be on.”

“What is the goal of the meeting?” asked a reporter.

“The discussion will have to do with the urgency of lowering the temperature and eliminating the tariffs on steel and aluminum,” replied LeBlanc.

“How do you trust the US administration going into the meeting?” asked a reporter.

“Our focus is not on exaggerated rhetoric,” replied LeBlanc.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, a member of the Canadian delegation in Washington, depicted the meeting as the opening of new trade talks amid the breach of the existing Canada-US-Mexico Agreement.

“There will be future meetings,” he said.

“This is just one of them.”

“This is negotiation 101,” said Champagne.

“We have been negotiating quite a bit in this country. We know how to negotiate. When you get into a negotiation with the Trump administration, we’ve been in that movie before in the last Trump administration.”

“I don’t think it would be smart as a nation to start taking stuff off the table as you enter a negotiation. Negotiation 101. If you read The Art Of The Deal you realize you are not coming to the table already brushing off a lot of things.”