Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday as Canada seeks relief from tariffs impacting its steel, aluminum, automobile, and copper industries.
Carney will arrive in the U.S. capital on Monday for his second White House visit since becoming prime minister. He will be accompanied by Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly.
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According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the visit will focus on “shared priorities” in shaping a renewed economic and security relationship between Canada and the United States.
Canadian officials have been making frequent visits to Washington since Trump set an August deadline for a new trade deal. That deadline passed without an agreement, and the president responded by hiking tariffs on Canada to 35%. However, goods that comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) remain exempt — a carveout Carney has argued gives Canada a stronger negotiating position than many other nations.
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The Canadian government is now focused on easing the strain caused by Trump’s separate tariffs, including those on steel, aluminum, automobiles, copper, and soon, lumber.
While it’s unclear if any breakthroughs will be announced during the trip, LeBlanc — Canada’s lead minister on the U.S. trade file — said Thursday he hopes to make progress on targeted, sector-specific tariff agreements before the formal CUSMA review begins next year. He told senators that there are ongoing discussions with the U.S. and he does not see “a dead end in those conversations.”
“Time will tell us if my optimism is misplaced,” LeBlanc added.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre weighed in Friday, writing on social media that he hopes Carney “will keep his promise and ‘negotiate a win.’”
Both governments launched official CUSMA consultations last month. Some Trump cabinet members have suggested that room exists for compromise on certain tariffs. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC in August that aluminum negotiations were likely, noting Ford’s heavy reliance on Canadian aluminum. The U.S. lacks the capacity to replace those imports domestically.
Trump has shown little willingness to budge on automobile and steel tariffs, repeatedly claiming the U.S. “doesn’t need anything from Canada.” His latest comments came during a speech to senior military officials at Quantico, where he again referred to Canada as America’s “51st state.”
“Canada called me a couple of weeks ago; they want to be part of it. I said, ‘Why don’t you just join our country? Become the 51st state and you get it for free,’” Trump told the audience while discussing his “Golden Dome” missile defense plan.
This rhetoric echoes his comments during Carney’s first Oval Office meeting in May. At the time, the prime minister firmly rejected Trump’s annexation jokes, both publicly and privately, stating that Canada will never become a U.S. state.
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