In President Trump’s unpredictable handling of sweeping tariffs on friendly nations, Canada stands out.
Despite the apparently positive atmosphere in talks, and the unusually warm relationship between Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, the country has still been on a wild ride.
In just three weeks, Canada went from a friendly meeting between the two leaders and the goal of reaching a trade deal on July 21, to a brief suspension of talks and then, late on Thursday evening, a threat by Mr. Trump of yet higher tariffs and another delay in talks.
As Mr. Trump upends the global trade order, good vibes appear necessary but still not enough to clinch a deal.
Canada — America’s next-door neighbor, top trading partner and a close defense ally — was the first target of Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs, alongside Mexico, as soon as he won the election. Mr. Trump justified the tariffs using debunked claims that Canada was allowing fentanyl and illegal immigrants to flow into the United States. He also said that he wanted to annex Canada and make it the 51st state.
Mr. Trump’s acrimonious relationship with Canada’s former prime minister, Justin Trudeau, seemed to further stoke the negative atmosphere. Then, in the spring, the vibe appeared to shift.
Mr. Carney took over briefly in March after Mr. Trudeau stepped down, and then swept to victory in April on an anti-Trump ticket. Mr. Carney visited the White House in May and then hosted Mr. Trump in Canada the next month during the Group of 7 industrialized nations leaders’ summit.
Both meetings went surprisingly well, partly because of Mr. Carney’s deft handling of the high-stakes interactions: minimum conflict, maximum friendliness.
The chemistry between the two men has been so good that in a recent interview CNN’s Christiane Amanpour referred to Mr. Carney as the “Trump whisperer.”
Mr. Trump has made no secret of his affinity for Mr. Carney, a former banker, going as far as to call him a “terrific guy.”
The collegial atmosphere has extended beyond the two leaders. Top officials driving the trade talks — the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer; Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman; and others — have struck a professional tone as their negotiations advanced.
That has been in sharp contrast to the public acrimony between the U.S. and Canadian teams when the two countries negotiated their free trade agreement, which included Mexico, in the first Trump presidency.
Last week, in an interview with The New York Times, Ms. Hillman said that officials were talking on a near-daily basis to get a deal done by a July 21 deadline. She said that the goal for Canada was to return to the stipulations of the free-trade agreement and remove all tariffs.
Earlier this year, Mr. Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada but then exempted most products that qualify as North American under that trade pact, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The exceptions were for steel and aluminum, which now have a 50 percent tariff, and vehicles, which take into account American components. Mr. Trump also set a lower tariff rate for oil, fertilizer and energy products from Canada.
Ms. Hillman characterized the 48 hours of drama in late June as par for the course in trade talks. (Canada introduced a digital services tax that would apply to large U.S. tech companies. Mr. Trump then suspended talks on a Friday, citing the tax. The Canadian government had scrapped it by Sunday evening and talks resumed that Monday).
“It’s quite a normal thing during the course of negotiations this broad and this complex,” she said.
But in Thursday’s late-night letter to Mr. Carney, Mr. Trump threatened to hike tariffs that now stand at 25 percent to 35 percent. And there are no indications that Canada will be exempt from new tariffs the administration wants to pursue on copper imports.
Mr. Trump disabused any Canadian officials of the notion that their talks may be somehow special, using boilerplate language similar to letters sent to other nations.
“These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country,” he wrote.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the country.
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