US and Canada reach ‘very fair’ trade agreement, Trump says

United States President Donald Trump said the US has reached “a very fair” trade deal with Canada that will include no tariffs on exports by US farmers and businesses to Canada. Late Tuesday, Trump announced that he would put a three-day pause on 50 percent tariffs that were set to take effect on Wednesday following a “good conversation” with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. This week’s comments come amid waves of negotiations between Washington and Ottawa.

Carney said in a statement on Tuesday that “substantial progress has been made, although there is important work still to be done”. Neither US nor Canadian officials have confirmed the full details of the agreement. The new tariffs would have covered about $20bn worth of imports.

They would have applied to goods regardless of whether they qualify for preferential treatment under the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. The auto sector has been a sticking point, the news agency reported, citing two unnamed industry sources. On Monday, in a meeting that included US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Canada and the US discussed cutting the US’s Section 232 tariffs – a tariff that is implemented after a US Commerce Department investigation finds that imports threaten US national security – on Canadian vehicles to 15 percent from 25 percent, with further reductions based on the amount of US content in each vehicle.

Nearly 72 percent of Canada’s goods exports last year went to the US, and Trump’s tariffs during his second term have strained the US-Canada trade relationship. The additional 50 percent that was being threatened would have exacerbated that pressure.