'Asked too much, offered too little': Carney on why Canada suspended US trade talks

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has suspended trade negotiations with the United States, saying Washington's latest demands were "uneconomic" and "unfair".

"While we believed earlier this week that we were moving towards a mutually beneficial agreement, in recent days, the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair, and undermined the net benefits for Canada and called into question the reliability of any deal," Carney said. "In short, they asked too much, and they offered too little."

The United States imposed 50 per cent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian products early Saturday. Canada said it would retaliate after last-ditch negotiations failed to resolve the latest strain between the two allies.

Canada To Match US Tariffs

Carney said he had instructed Canadian negotiators to return to Ottawa and announced that Canada would match the new US tariffs "dollar for dollar".

"For over a year, Canada has worked intensively and in good faith with the United States to negotiate a new comprehensive trade deal," he said in a post on Saturday. "We cannot accept what the U.S. has offered, and we will not give what they have asked."

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The new Canadian tariff measures will come into force on the Tuesday after Labour Day, with details to be released in the coming days.

Carney said Canada had been willing to negotiate but was not prepared to accept a deal at any price. "Our goal has always been to get the best deal for Canadians, never a deal at any price or on any time frame," he said.

US Sought Limits On Canada's Other Trade Deals

Carney said one of Washington's last-minute demands was an attempt to restrict Canada's ability to strike trade agreements with other countries. "The U.S. introduced in the last hours, efforts to restrict our ability to have other trade deals," he said.

Canada, he said, had secured 20 new deals and economic and security partnerships over the past year, with the prospect of doubling its market access.

"We are the partner of choice in many respects for countries around the world, and the Americans wanted to restrict that," Carney said, calling the proposed language "unacceptable".

US Blames Canada For Breakdown

The United States said Canada had declined to finalise the agreement under terms that had been agreed earlier in the week.

"Tonight, Canada declined to finalise the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week," US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.

"Despite the US offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk-backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days," he added.

Canada had sought concessions on tariffs covering steel, aluminum, autos, and lumber.

Trump's import taxes affect about 5 per cent of Canada's annual exports to the United States.