'We'll move ahead without the US': Canadian PM Carney fires back after Trump rules out meeting

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday that Canada will press ahead with building new economic partnerships and strengthening its domestic economy after U.S. President Donald Trump ruled out a meeting between the two leaders during their visit to Asia for the ASEAN and APEC summits.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Japan that he "won't be meeting with Carney for a long time" and that he was unsure when the new tariffs on Canada would take effect. The U.S. president, who has threatened to impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canadian goods, said he was angered by an anti-tariff advertisement aired by Ontario in American markets.

Reacting to Trump's remarks, Carney said Canada remains open to dialogue but will continue to strengthen other global relationships and domestic investment. "We stand ready to sit down with the United States, myself, with the president, my colleagues, with their colleagues when the U.S. is ready to sit down," he said.

"We had made considerable progress on a supplement to the trading relationship that we had considerable progress in the areas of steel, aluminum, and energy-associated areas as well," Carney said. "We’re ready to sit down when they are ready to do that. If they're not ready to do that, as those comments indicate, then we were always going to do these things to be clear. We're going to first and foremost build our economy, build it with generational investments, and you will see that not just the scale of ambition, but the speed with which we put that into effect in the budget on November 4."

Carney said Canada's focus will remain on expanding global ties beyond its southern neighbour. "We'll continue to do what we've been doing over the course of the last few days and over the course of recent months, which is to build those other partnerships and deepen those other partnerships on which we're getting very much traction," he said.

When asked if Trump's decision to cancel talks reflected deeper frustration with Canada, Carney said the federal government would take the U.S. President at his word. "There were a series of very detailed, very specific, very comprehensive discussions, negotiations on the areas I just listed up until the point of those ads running. I would suggest you take the president at his word for his reason," Carney said. "Those ads came, the president had the reactions which you have seen, made the decisions that he has made—those are his decisions to take—and we're in the situation we're in."

Pressed on whether he still believed the U.S. wanted a trade deal with Canada, Carney said the two countries remained deeply intertwined. "We are their second largest trading partner. We provide a series of essential goods for their economy. We are one of many providers, but we provide in some areas essential goods for their economy," he said.

Citing Canada's aluminum exports as an example, he added, "If you look at Canadian exports of aluminum to the United States—which provides 60% of the aluminum to the U.S. market—the embedded energy in the Canadian aluminum exports is the equivalent of the energy of 10 Hoover Dams in the United States. Now, is the best use of that scale of energy creating aluminum in the United States as opposed to continuing to foster and power the AI revolution which the U.S. is leading or power homes and others? These are decisions for the United States to make.”

Carney underlined that Canada would continue to benefit from its strong trading relationship with the U.S. while investing in self-reliance. "Canada is the largest export customer for over 30 U.S. states," he said. "There is a very strong, deep trading relationship and an alignment of interests in many areas. We’re ready to have those discussions to further improve them when it’s appropriate—but we’re not resting, because we can build. The return on building at home is far greater than the hit from trade turbulence with the United States."

Asked if Canada had contingency plans in case talks remained frozen, Carney replied, "Yes. The short answer is yes. To your follow-up, no, I'm not about to detail those contingency plans. But I will go to the big obvious plan that is there in plain sight and will be further detailed in the budget on November 4."

Meanwhile, India has invited Carney to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi early next year, a move that could pave the way for a comprehensive economic and free-trade partnership.

Dinesh Kumar Patnaik, India's new High Commissioner to Canada, earlier this month told The Globe and Mail that both countries are making a "sincere effort" to repair strained diplomatic relations. "Bilateral trade could exceed $50 billion annually if a far-reaching deal is reached, he said. "We want an early visit of the Prime Minister to India," Patnaik said. "It is a relationship we do not want to go downhill."