OTTAWA, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday his government was ready to sign a trade deal with the U.S. that benefits both countries, adding any agreement would need to have stability and credibility.
“The deal that’s possible, that’s in the interests of Canadian workers, families and businesses, is also the deal that is in the interests of American families, American businesses, American consumers, and … we’re ready to sit down and strike that deal when the Americans are ready,” Carney told reporters in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Carney dismissed recent comments by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Canada walked away from a trade deal because of domestic politics, saying in response to a question, “I don’t think, with all respect, appointed, unelected cabinet members in the United States are experts on Canadian politics.”
Carney suggested there had been a recent softening in the U.S. approach to any trade deal that could spur further discussions.
“There were a few issues that the United States was arguing right up to the last hour,” he said, describing it as an “our way or the highway” attitude before talks broke down last month. “Now, they’re not,” he said. “So all of a sudden, they don’t care about Canadian language or culture and those elements. Well, if they didn’t care, they shouldn’t have kept them in the deal,” Carney said. “It’s good. We welcome that.”
Shortly after Carney spoke, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that it was “very good for Canadian Politicians like Prime Minister Mark Carney to make President Donald J. Trump ‘the enemy.'” He warned the country’s economy would then collapse and be “Worse than anything that has ever happened to a Canadian politician.”
(Reporting by Maria Cheng and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Chris Reese)
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