Canada PM Carney hits Trump, Sec. Lutnick over trade, tariff row

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday returned fire after Trump administration Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed Ottawa tanked trade talks with the U.S. for political purposes.

“I don’t think, with all respect, appointed, unelected cabinet members in the United States are experts on Canadian politics,” Carney said during a press conference in Thunder Bay in northwest Ontario.

“We are always going to stand up for what’s in the best interest of Canada,” Carney said, after accusing the U.S. of making different claims about their red lines for a trade deal now that negotiations have been scrapped.

But the prime minister maintained that a deal benefiting both Canada and the U.S. is possible. “We’re ready to sit down and strike that deal when the Americans are ready,” he said.

President Donald Trump later Thursday morning appeared less open to rekindling the U.S. and Canada’s chilly relations, however.

“It is very good for Canadian Politicians like Prime Minister Carney to make President Donald J. Trump ‘the enemy,’ until their Economy collapses,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Then it will prove to be very bad for Politics — Worse than anything that has ever happened to a Canadian Politician. Just watch!”

Carney was responding to Lutnick’s claim on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” a day earlier that the Canadians “blew up” a nearly complete trade deal with the U.S. “for political reasons only.”

Canada treated President Donald Trump “disrespectfully,” but they will change their tune after mid-October “because their elections will be behind them,” Lutnick asserted.

Canada has upcoming special elections, or byelections, in a handful of ridings, or parliamentary districts.

Negotiators walked away from trade talks last month after failing to clinch a deal before Trump’s Aug. 22 deadline for new 50% tariffs on some $20 billion worth of Canadian imports.

Canada has retaliated with “dollar for dollar” tariffs on U.S. goods, which are set to take effect next week.

Each side has accused the other of making unreasonable last-minute demands. Lutnick said Wednesday that Canada tried to add tariff relief on medium- and heavy-duty trucks just hours before Trump’s tariff deadline. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has previously denied Carney’s claim that Canadian French-language requirements were a sticking point in the trade talks.

Carney in Thursday’s remarks pushed back. “There are a few issues that the United States was arguing right up to the last hour. Red lines weren’t going to change … ‘our way or the highway, take it or leave it,’ you know, attitude.”

“All of a sudden they don’t care about Canadian language or culture and those elements,” Carney said, adding, “Good. We welcome that. We care about those issues.”

On the dispute over trucks, Carney accused the U.S. of backtracking on its demands.

“They’re like, ‘Of course, we weren’t going to keep them out.’ Well, they were going to keep them out,” he said. “Some of what they’re saying now is different than what they were were drawing the line on.”