Mark Carney confirms possibility of sectoral tariff deal with U.S.

Mike Le Couteur has more on Prime Minister Carney revealing Stellantis has assured him the company has plans for its Brampton plant amid U.S. investments.

Prime Minister Mark Carney confirms there’s a possibility for a new sectoral tariff deal with the United States by the end of this month, but is cautioning against being overly optimistic.

Asked by CTV News’ Judy Trinh on his way into a cabinet meeting Tuesday morning whether Canada can expect a deal with the United States on sectoral tariffs by APEC, Carney said: “We’ll see.”

“We’re in ongoing discussions with the Americans, and you know,” Carney said. “I wouldn’t overplay it.”

Government sources, meanwhile, tell CTV News they are hopeful there could be movement on a steel and aluminum deal with the U.S. this week.

Carney and his cabinet have been in ongoing discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration for months, as the trade war between the two countries drags on.

Throughout the negotiations, Carney has signalled it’s highly unlikely any country will come away from talks with the United States with an entirely tariff-free deal. Instead, Canada is hoping to secure deals on specific sectors, namely steel, aluminum, copper, autos, and lumber.

“I’m looking forward to see the president (Trump) at APEC in (South) Korea, but we’re going to be seeing lots of other countries, and one of our core elements of our strategy is diversifying trade,” Carney also said. “That’s why we’re going to Asia.”

Carney is travelling to Malaysia next week to meet with the group of Southeast Asian countries known as ASEAN. He’ll then head to South Korea late next week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC).

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, however, is less optimistic about the prospect of a deal by next week.

Speaking to reporters on his way into Tuesday’s cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill, he said while he’s optimistic by nature, there’s still work ahead before an agreement is reached.

LeBlanc said he’s in ongoing discussions with his American counterparts.

“We’re making progress,” he said. “We’re into a level of detail that we hadn’t seen previously, but we still have work to do, and my objective is to continue to do that work until we get to the deal.”

“But we haven’t set a deadline of a particular date in the next week or two,” he added. “We’ll just continue to do the work to get the right deal. If we set an artificial deadline, it might lead us to a deal that’s not in the best interest of Canadian workers.”

Over the summer, the federal government set and missed two deadlines by which it’d planned to reach a new agreement.

In an interview with CTV News on Monday, Business Council of Canada president and CEO Goldy Hyder said there’s “reason to be cautiously optimistic” that Canada is working towards a deal for some sectors.

With files from CTV News’ Abigail Bimman