Carney Says Teams Will Work On Us Deal In ‘coming Weeks’

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday he had a “good conversation” with President Donald Trump on trade, and that their teams would be working to hash out an agreement to end their trade war “in the coming weeks.”

In a post to X, Carney said his conversation with Trump “builds on our recent constructive discussions on the outlines of a mutually beneficial trade deal that would create jobs for our workers, boost affordability for families, and fully respect Canada’s languages, culture, and sovereignty.”

The prime minister’s office confirmed that the prime minister spoke to Trump by phone Saturday.

A White House official told POLITICO that “the Trump Administration welcomes continued engagement with Canada as we work toward finalizing the details of a deal that will deliver meaningful results for the American people.”

Carney’s post came two days after he told POLITICO that he is not in a rush to reach a trade truce with Trump and is prepared to wait for a new American president to take office in 2027, if necessary, rather than accept a bad deal for Canadians.

“What is happening is that every month that goes by, Canada grows stronger,” he said. “Our options increase.”

However, Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre rejected the idea that Carney can afford to wait out Trump.

“You know who can't wait another two-and-a-half years? The auto workers that I meet regularly with in Windsor, the small business owners, the aluminum extruders who are worried they're going to have countless layoffs,” he told reporters Sunday. “They can't afford to wait another two-and-a-half years for Mark Carney to keep his promise to get a great deal with the United States."

The two governments have been at loggerheads since negotiations on a deal to avert new U.S. tariffs broke down in late August. In the intervening months, both sides have hiked tariffs on some $20 billion of each other’s exports, and the U.S. has banned imports of certain Canadian items like motorcycles, dairy products and alcohol.

The Canada tariffs have been uniquely unpopular among the U.S. electorate, and have given Democrats a compelling attack line, particularly in northern border states and districts, forcing some Republicans in those areas to distance themselves from the president.

Neither side has held formal negotiations since August, but U.S. officials, including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, have kept in touch with Canadian counterparts.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Carney’s statement.

There has been an uptick in engagement between the two sides over the past two weeks. POLITICO reported last week that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been in regular contact with Dominic Leblanc, the Canadian minister responsible for U.S. and Canadian trade, since Trump and Carney spoke by phone on Oct. 21.

There has been no sign, however, that either side has dropped the key demands that upended the August negotiations. Canada has sought tariff reductions for its auto, steel and aluminum exports, while the U.S. is pushing for increased access to Canadian dairy and alcohol markets.

Trump, who has regularly skewered Canada as the 51st U.S. state, adopted a new tone in recent days. At a rally in South Carolina on Thursday, he said Ottawa has been “treating us extremely nicely lately,” and predicted at a rally in Michigan last weekend that the two sides would have their issues “settled pretty soon.”

Zi-Ann Lum contributed to this report.