WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said he would prescribe tariff levels and trade concessions for partners looking to avoid higher duties, appearing to move away from the idea that he would engage in back-and-forth negotiations.
“We’re going to put very fair numbers down, and we’re going to say, here’s – what this country, what we want. And congratulations, we have a deal. And they’ll either say ‘great’, and they’ll start shopping, or they’ll say, ‘not good’,” Mr Trump said on May 6 at the White House as he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“It’s going to be a very fair number, it’ll be a low number. We’re not looking to hurt countries,” he added.
The May 6 meeting comes just a week after the Canadian Prime Minister’s Liberal Party won an election in which Mr Carney vowed to strengthen his country’s economic independence and protect its sovereignty from the US President, who has openly mused about making Canada the 51st state.
With Mr Carney, Mr Trump indicated that he would strike a friendlier relationship than the one he had with former prime minister Justin Trudeau, whom the US President said he “didn’t like”.
The President, however, cast doubt on whether Mr Carney will be able to strike a deal. When asked whether there was anything the Canadian leader could say to convince him to lift the tariffs on his country, Mr Trump said “no”.
“There’s no reason for us to be subsidising Canada,” Mr Trump said. “Canada’s a place that will have to be able to take care of itself economically.”
As Mr Trump was speaking, the Canadian dollar briefly rose to its highest level since October at C$1.375 per US dollar, before paring those gains to trade at C$1.377 in late afternoon New York time.
Mr Trump’s comments come as US trading partners rush to negotiate with the administration to avoid higher levies. The President said on May 4 that the first deals could come as soon as this week. But his latest comments indicate he could continue to change his approach, which could further roil financial markets that have struggled with uncertainty surrounding his trade policy.
Mr Trump said he was tired of questions about when deals would be struck.
“We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now if we wanted,” he said. “We will sign some deals. But much bigger than that is we’re going to put down the price that people are going to have to pay to shop in the United States.”
Mr Trump said he had already got some nations to agree to concessions, saying India had agreed to roll back tariffs on American goods.
Mr Carney offered praise for Mr Trump, calling him a “transformational president focused on the economy with a relentless focus on the American worker” and expressing eagerness to work with the US on “defence and security, securing the Arctic and developing the Arctic”.
But Mr Carney also pushed back on Mr Trump’s calls for his country to be absorbed by the US, saying “it’s not for sale, it won’t be for sale, ever”.
Mr Trump insisted there are merits to Canada joining the US, but said Mr Carney’s stance would not negatively affect their talks.
“I still believe that but, you know, it takes two to tango,” Mr Trump said. “It would really be a wonderful marriage.”
After the meeting, Mr Carney told reporters he had asked Mr Trump to stop calling Canada the 51st state, though he did not say how the President had responded. Asked what was going through his mind in the Oval Office as Mr Trump referred to the Canada-US border as an artificial line, Mr Carney replied: “I’m glad that you couldn’t tell.”
The Canadian leader said he and Mr Trump had a positive discussion that created a “good basis” for later negotiations on trade and security. They agreed to have further conversations in the coming weeks, including at the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Alberta in June.
“These are the discussions you have when you’re looking to find solutions, as opposed to laying down terms,” he said. “We have more – a lot more – work to do. I’m not trying to suggest in any respect that we can have one meeting and everything’s changed, but now we are engaged.”
Separately, Mr Trump told reporters that the meeting went well. “We had a very good meeting. No tension. We want to do what’s right for our respective peoples, and that’s what’s going to happen,” he said.
The President said he had not called Mr Carney “governor”, as he did at times with Mr Trudeau. “I haven’t done that yet, and maybe I won’t. I did have a lot of fun with Trudeau. But I think this is a big step up, it’s a good step up for Canada.”
Mr Trump applied tariffs of 10 per cent and 25 per cent on Canada in March, while excluding certain goods covered under the North American trade pact. The President has said the tariffs were necessary to curb the fentanyl trade, even though US government data shows that very little of the drug enters the US through Canada.
Canada, in turn, has applied some countermeasures, including some tariffs on US consumer products.
Mr Trump also levied tariffs of 25 per cent globally to sectors where Canada is a major source of US imports, including automobiles and aluminium. And he has threatened duties on other sectors such as lumber and most recently, film production. The impact on the auto industry, which has supply chains that criss-cross the US, Canada and Mexico, threatens to be particularly stark.
The President softened the auto tariffs by applying them only to the non-US portions of cars, lowering the effective rate for vehicles manufactured in Canada as part of the heavily integrated continental auto sector. Mr Trump has also said he will apply tariffs to auto parts that comply with the USMCA trade pact, though he has not specified when. Global tariffs on other auto parts went into effect on May 3.
Mr Carney said he pressed the case for tariffs to be lifted and told Mr Trump about Canada’s efforts to strengthen its border security. He also said the two leaders discussed how they could strengthen the North American auto industry against foreign competition, including from Asia.
A senior Canadian government official, asking not to be identified discussing the private meeting, said Mr Trump sought Mr Carney’s perspective on a number of foreign policy issues, including Russia, Iran and China.
Military spending
Mr Carney sought to explain why he believes none of the US tariffs on Canada make sense, while doing it in a way that was not confrontational, the Canadian official said. He also described Canada’s plan to boost defence spending, especially in the Arctic, which the President was very interested in, the official said.
Canada and the US exchanged US$916 billion (S$1.2 trillion) in goods and services in 2024, according to data from the US Census Bureau. The US had a trade deficit of US$36 billion with Canada in 2024, partly driven by imports of oil and gas.
Amid the tariff war, Canadian exports to the US tumbled in March, even as shipments to other countries soared. Canadian exports to the US plunged 6.6 per cent, the biggest drop since the Covid-19 pandemic, while imports fell 2.9 per cent, Statistics Canada data showed on May 6.
Mr Trump indicated he would pursue just “subtle changes” to the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement negotiated during his first term and that their talks would be “very friendly”.
“This is a bigger discussion,” he continued. “There are much bigger forces involved and this will take some time.”
Mr Carney’s election victory capped a stunning turnaround for the Liberal Party. That rebound was driven heavily by Mr Trump, whose calls for Canada to be a state sparked widespread anger in the country with boycotts of American goods and cross-border tourism sagging. Polls had shown Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre having a wide lead before Mr Trudeau resigned.
“I think I was probably the greatest thing that happened to him, but I can’t take full credit,” Mr Trump joked on May 6. “Probably one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics, maybe even greater than mine.”
The President also teased what he said would be a “great announcement over the next few days”, before he leaves on a trip to the Middle East, but said that it would not “necessarily” be trade related.
BLOOMBERG