Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is on his second visit to the White House in five months as he deals with increasing pressure to address US tariffs on steel, autos and other goods that are hurting Canada’s economy.
Carney and United States President Donald Trump met at the White House on Tuesday.
“From the beginning, I liked him, and we’ve had a good relationship,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, sitting next to Carney.
“We have natural conflict. We also have mutual love … you know we have great love for each other,” he added, saying the two men would discuss tariffs including potentially lowering tariffs on key Canadian sectors as part of efforts to ease trade tensions between Washington and Ottawa.
More than 77 percent of Canada’s exports go to the US.
A Canadian government official and several analysts played down the chances of an imminent trade deal with Trump and said the mere fact that discussions are continuing should be considered a success for Carney.
Among the topics up for discussion are trade and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is critical to Canada’s economy and is up for a review next year.
Trump said he was willing to revisit the free trade agreement, which was enacted during his first term, or seek “different deals.”
“We could renegotiate it, and that would be good, or we can just do different deals,” he said. “We’re allowed to do different deals.”
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