By Greg Savoy and Promit Mukherjee
WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Canada’s minister responsible for trade with the U.S. said on Friday the two sides still had work to do, with less than four hours remaining before 50% tariffs on Canadian imports were due to take effect.
“We are going to continue working up until the last minute. Our job is not finished,” Dominic LeBlanc said as he emerged from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s office after hours of talks.
Top trade negotiators from Canada and the U.S. met for the third straight day in Washington to try to finalize a trade deal which could help reduce previous tariffs and avert new duties threatened by President Donald Trump as his new deadline inched closer.
Trump has said he will impose a new 50% tariff on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) on Saturday if a deal is not reached.
The U.S. president said earlier on Friday he expected the two countries to reach an agreement, though he provided no details. He also said the United States was starting work towards a trade deal with Mexico.
“I have dealt with the prime minister. I have got a good relationship… The deal with Canada is moving along, and we should be able to have a deal with Canada,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, referring to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
A deal could mark a detente in what has been 18 months of tense relations that started when Trump imposed tariffs on key imports from Canada, prompting Ottawa to retaliate with a suite of countermeasures.
Earlier in the day, LeBlanc’s office told Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Advisory Committee on U.S. economic relations that talks, which remained “complex and consequential,” would continue throughout the day, according to an email seen by Reuters.
“I want to be direct with you about where we stand. This is an intense moment. The stakes are significant… That pressure is being felt by Canadians across the country, and those at the table are acutely aware of it,” the email said. LeBlanc’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LeBlanc met Greer for more than three hours on Thursday and said the two sides were “very close” to a deal.
Even if a deal is reached, Carney could find it hard to sell it to Canadians and the influential premiers of the 10 provinces.
A Leger opinion poll showed on Wednesday that 56% of Canadians want Carney to make no further concessions.
Sources say an agreement is expected to cut the tariff on Canadian-built vehicles to 15% from 25% and halve tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 25%. Ontario, a major steel and aluminum producer, wants the tariffs scrapped.
U.S. ALCOHOL
Carney is calling on major provinces to rescind their ban on sales of U.S. alcohol, which is a major irritant for Washington.
Wab Kinew, the premier of Manitoba, said on Thursday Trump was “very weak” and Canada should take advantage.
“I think we’ve got the upper hand — they’re back on their heels right now. They’re coming to us for a deal, and so I think we should fight,” he told reporters.
Canada, though, is less than a tenth the size of the U.S. economy and sends around 70% of all exports south of the border, which makes it uniquely vulnerable to punitive U.S. trade actions.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance mocked Carney on Wednesday, saying he “comes in and puffs his chest out and says, ‘I’m going to, like, out-tough Donald Trump’.”
In a recording obtained by the Canadian Press, Vance can then be heard saying “It’s hilarious because Carney presents this as some victory for Canada when fundamentally, like, they climb down on a lot of issues.”
Vance was speaking at a fundraiser in Southampton, New York.
(Reporting by Greg Savoy, Promit Mukherjee and David Lawder; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Trevor Hunnicut; Editing by Katharine Jackson, Philippa Fletcher, Sanjeev Miglani and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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