Prime Minister Mark Carney is pausing his federal election campaign for a third time to tackle U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating global trade war.
Carney, who is campaigning as the Liberal Party leader but retains caretaker authorities as the current prime minister during a federal election, said he will return to Ottawa to convene a meeting of the cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations and national security officials on Friday.
This comes after Trump paused his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs for 90 days on dozens of countries facing rates higher than his 10 per cent baseline.
Canada was not included in that list of countries to face “reciprocal” tariffs but does face three other sets of tariffs imposed over the last six weeks: 25 per cent general U.S. export tariffs on non-CUSMA compliant goods, 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. and 25 per cent auto sector tariffs.
Trump has said his pause, announced hours after his global tariff policy took effect at midnight Wednesday, will bring the tariff rate down to 10 per cent for all countries facing “reciprocal” tariffs except China, which as of Wednesday faces a staggering 125 per cent levy on all goods exported to the U.S. after retaliating further in the ever-evolving trade war.
A White House official told Global News on background Wednesday that Canada and Mexico remain exempt from the 10 per cent baseline for “reciprocal” tariffs.
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The White House has previously said the two countries will face a 12 per cent “reciprocal” tariff if the fentanyl-related tariffs are removed.
Carney said Trump’s halt is “a welcome reprieve for the global economy,” but “the impacts of other tariffs and the threat of future tariffs are already being felt around the world and here at home.”
“So, the stakes have never been higher for our economy,” Carney said at a campaign stop in Brampton, Ont., Thursday.
Carney spoke to Trump for the first time since being sworn in as the prime minister late last month.
On Thursday, Carney said he has agreed to begin negotiations with Trump “immediately following the election” if his party forms government.
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“We will ensure that the ground for those negotiations is constructive while we stand firm with our workers, protecting our workers and building this economy.”
Carney spoke to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday.
The European Union has decided to pause planned counter-tariffs on the U.S. for 90 days following Trump’s halt to the “reciprocal” duties. But von der Leyen says those countermeasures will kick in if “negotiations are not satisfactory.”
A readout from the Prime Minister’s Office said the two leaders discussed the U.S. tariffs and stressed “the importance of working together to deepen economic ties and promote economic security for people on both sides of the Atlantic.”
“It isn’t an accident that I spoke to President von der Leyen today because there’s an interest in deepening our trading relationship with the European Union, with the United Kingdom, with like-minded partners in Asia,” Carney told reporters.
Trump’s trade war has emerged as a key campaign focus for all the federal party leaders in this election.
Carney also had to temporarily suspend his election campaign for meetings in Ottawa to coordinate a response to Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff announcement on April 2 and following the auto tariff executive order signed by the U.S. president last month.
Earlier on Thursday, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre called out Trump’s decision to pause global tariffs for 90 days on its trading partners while keeping other tariffs on Canada.
He called it a “historic mistreatment of Canada by President Trump.”
“I condemn President Trump for keeping the tariffs on Canada, all while he offered a 90-day pause on tariffs for dozens of other countries,” Poilievre told reporters in Milton, Ont.
“It remains a mystery why the president treats Canada worse than dozens of other faraway countries who are not America’s best friend.”
Campaigning in Saskatoon Thursday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said a lot of Canadians are worried about the trade war and “the rollercoaster ride that is Donald Trump.”
He said his party would oppose any cuts to federal services.
“We’ve got a trade war, we’ve got attacks from Donald Trump, a potential recession. We think cutting the services that people need is the wrong thing to do at a time like this,” Singh said.
— with files from Global News’ Sean Boynton
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