Donald Trump’s key sector tariffs look firm, Mark Carney says, as trade talks could go past Friday’s deadline

Archived version: https://archive.fo/mgkp1.

>Prime Minister Mark Carney suggested Wednesday that U.S. tariffs on key sectors like autos, steel and aluminum will likely remain, since Donald Trump’s White House views them as necessary for the national security of the United States. 

>Two days before Trump’s latest deadline to increase tariffs on Canadian goods, Carney told reporters on Parliament Hill that it is possible trade talks between his government and the U.S. administration will drag on past Friday. While Carney called the talks “constructive” and “complex,” he said there are certain sectors Trump views as “strategic” for national security reasons. 

>He named automobiles and steel — significant employers in Ontario — as well as aluminum, pharmaceuticals, lumber, and semiconductors. 

>All those sectors in Canada are either already grappling with significant American tariffs imposed under Trump, or face the possibility of higher duties to export to the U.S. 

>The U.S. also kept 50-per-cent tariffs on steel and aluminum in recent agreements on trade with the European Union and Japan, the same level imposed on the Canadian sectors earlier this year.

>Asked whether a deal is possible without tariffs on those sectors, Carney said that the United State’s “revealed approach” is to keep some level of import duties in those areas.

>“In any broader deal, there are gives and takes, and there’s various factors,” Carney said Wednesday. “But I think we have to recognize that, in the strategic sectors — again, as defined by the United States: what’s strategic to them — that they have tariffs.” 

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