Carney set to speak after ‘productive’ call with Trump on trade war – National

Prime Minister Mark Carney will hold a press conference Friday, one day after he held a “productive and wide-ranging” call with U.S. President Donald Trump amid ongoing trade tensions between the two countries.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced the press conference hours before it’s scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. Eastern. Global News will stream Carney’s remarks live in this article.

Trump is also set to make an announcement from the White House at the same time as Carney.

Multiple U.S. media outlets including Bloomberg and Reuters, citing a source familiar, reported Friday that Carney plans to remove many of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. in a bid to lower trade tensions. Global News has not independently confirmed those plans.

Carney said Thursday that he and Trump “focused on trade challenges, opportunities, building a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S., and supporting long-term peace and security for Ukraine and Europe” in a post on social media that called the discussion “substantive and lengthy.”

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said Trump and Carney “agreed to reconvene shortly.”

Trump has yet to publicly confirm details of the call.

It marked the first known phone call between the two leaders since an Aug. 1 trade deal deadline passed, and Trump raised tariffs on Canada to 35 per cent.

Those tariffs do not apply to goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade.

The White House said the duties increased because Ottawa did not do enough to curb the flow of fentanyl and pointed to Canada’s implementation of retaliatory tariffs.

Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency shows a minuscule amount of fentanyl is seized at the northern border compared to the border with Mexico, though seizures from Canada spiked this spring.

Canada has imposed counter-tariffs on U.S. products in response, including on American-made steel, aluminum and auto parts.

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Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also held their first official meeting in Washington on Thursday, after Anand took over the portfolio in May.

The two discussed Ukraine, Gaza, Haiti and China, according to readouts from their offices, which did not mention the ongoing trade war.

Canada and the U.S. have faced several additional sources of tension in recent weeks.

Rubio announced Wednesday the U.S. was sanctioning four jurists and prosecutors on the International Criminal Court, including a Canadian judge who approved an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan.

Trump has also criticized Carney for his announcement that Canada intends to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September along with multiple European allies.

The Trump administration has steadfastly backed Israel in its military aims in Gaza and its policies in the West Bank, which have put the future of a two-state solution to the conflict into doubt.

Anand on Thursday joined 20 other foreign ministers from Europe, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom in condemning Israel for giving final approval to a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

A joint letter from the foreign ministers said it will “make a two-state solution impossible.”

“We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms,” the letter said.

—With files from the Canadian Press

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