US President Donald Trump shows no signs of resuming Canada trade talks after tariff backlash

US President Donald Trump said he doesn’t anticipate meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “for a while,” despite Mr Carney’s insistence that the two sides were close to a trade deal on lowering metals tariffs.

Mr Trump halted the talks last week in reaction to a TV advertisement by the province of Ontario that criticised his tariff regime.

On Monday, Mr Trump was asked about the possibility of meeting with Mr Carney, who will also be in South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this week.

“I don’t want to meet with him,” Mr Trump said on Monday aboard Air Force One.

“No, I’m not going to be meeting with them for a while. I’m very happy with the deal we have right now with Canada. We’re going to let it ride.”

On Saturday, Mr Trump said he would increase the import tax on goods from Canada by 10 per cent over the ad, which features excerpts of former US President Ronald Reagan criticising tariffs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford had said he would stop airing the ad after the weekend, but Mr Trump has expressed frustration that the Canadian leader didn’t move to immediately pull the commercial, which has aired during US broadcasts of the World Series.

Asked when the additional tariff would kick in, Mr Trump said he didn’t know.

“We’ll see,” he said.

Mr Carney, who spoke with reporters a few hours after Mr Trump’s comments, said he hasn’t talked to the US president since talks were halted.

“We’re ready to sit down when they’re ready to do that,” Mr Carney said, adding that the countries had recently made “considerable progress in the areas of steel, aluminium and energy,” to the point that term sheets were being exchanged.

“There were a series of very detailed, very specific, very comprehensive discussions,” Mr Carney said. The prime minister said he takes Mr Trump at his word that the television ad was the reason for cutting off the talks, but still sees value in restarting the negotiations despite the animosity from the White House.

“In any complicated, high-stakes negotiation, you can get unexpected twists and turns and you have to keep your cool during those situations,” Mr Carney said.

“We stand by the progress that had been made - the government of Canada does - and we are ready, when appropriate, to pick that up.”

Canada currently faces a US base tariff of 35 per cent, but the rate doesn’t apply to most Canadian goods because of an exemption for products and shipments made within the rules of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The US also has sectoral taxes that are separate from the base rate. Canada’s steel and aluminium products are subject to 50 per cent US tariffs on foreign metals, and Canadian-made cars and trucks are only partially eligible for exemption from Mr Trump’s 25 per cent tax on most foreign autos.

Mr Trump hasn’t specified how the tax increase would apply, and Mr Carney said his government has not been given any further details.

Mr Trump also said he wasn’t swayed by learning that the ad was funded by Ontario rather than the federal government.

“The prime minister knew - everybody knew,” he said.

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