Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit the White House next week to discuss trade amid tensions over tariffs imposed on his country by President Trump.
Carney will meet with Trump next Tuesday, according to the prime minister’s office. The two leaders are expected to discuss “shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.”
Trump in August imposed a 35 percent tariff on Canada, a higher rate than dozens of other countries the Trump administration has hit with duties on goods.
The president has argued Canada had not done enough to curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States, even though relatively little fentanyl crosses the northern border each year compared with the southern border.
The White House has exempted from the new tariffs any goods covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement signed into law in 2020.
Carney’s office noted in announcing his visit that Canada has the “lowest average tariff rate of any American trading partner, with 85% of Canada’s trade with the U.S. being tariff-free.”
Trump has repeatedly suggested the U.S. has no need for Canadian goods and mused about annexing Canada as the 51st state. Carney during his last visit to the White House pushed back on Trump’s comments and said Canada would never become a state.
