Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney to meet with Trump next week at White House

By Paula Newton, Max Saltman, CNN

(CNN) — Canada announced Friday that Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Washington next week to meet with US President Donald Trump for what is being billed as a “working visit.”

While a statement from the prime minister’s office says the visit on Tuesday will “focus on shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.,” Carney is under pressure at home to negotiate some tariff relief for Canada as sectoral tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum, lumber, and energy continue to bite.

President Trump’s tariff regime has hit the Canadian economy hard, with unemployment hitting 7.1% in August, the highest level since May 2016, excluding the pandemic period, according to Canadian government data.

Carney won an election in April with a strident message for Canadians, warning that their relationship with America would change dramatically in the coming years.

“The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over,” Carney said in March, shortly after Trump imposed a 25% tariff on cars and parts. “It’s clear the US is no longer a reliable partner.”

To that end, Carney has pursued closer relations with other Western countries, courting the UK and France in his first visits abroad as prime minister and collaborating with Australia on new radar systems for the Arctic.

‘Respect’ for Canada

Carney indicated in the months following his election that he asked for and received “respect” from Trump, asking that the president drop any suggestion that Canada should become the “51st state.”

But President Trump recently resurrected the idea in a speech to military leaders on Tuesday when he spoke of his proposed “Golden Dome” missile defence system that could potentially protect both Canada and the US.

“Canada called me a couple of weeks ago. They want to be part of it. To which I said, well, why don’t you just join our country? Become 51, become the 51st state and you get it for free,” Trump said.

Earlier this week, Canada’s top trade negotiator Dominic LeBlanc said Canada still had leverage in any trade negotiation as the trade war was also hurting American businesses.

“We are confident that the domestic pressure from senators, governors, business leaders, union leaders, in the United States will also create potentially an opportunity for us to come to an agreement with the American administration,” said LeBlanc while testifying to a Canadian parliamentary committee.

In addition to sectoral tariffs, Canada, the US and Mexico have started consultations on renewing the trade agreement negotiated by the first Trump administration and launched in 2020. It is set to expire in 2026.

During the Canadian prime minister’s first visit to the US in May, Trump almost immediately brought up annexation while meeting with Carney in the Oval Office, pronouncing a union between Canada and the US as “meant to be.”

“As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale,” Carney told the president. “Never say never,” Trump replied.

The annexation question appeared to subside for a time afterwards. In July, Carney claimed in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that Trump is no longer interested in annexing Canada. “He admires Canada,” Carney told Amanpour. “I think it’s fair to say, maybe for a period of time (he) coveted Canada.”

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