Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday rejected the idea that the country would agree to a rushed trade deal with the United States.
The Trump administration implemented an Aug. 1 deadline for trade deals, carrying the threat of a 35 percent tariff on Canadian exports after imposing then pausing harsher levies earlier this year.
“The government of Canada will not accept a bad deal,” Carney said in French in Huntsville, Ontario, in remarks alternating between English and French, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“Our objective is not to reach a deal whatever it costs. We are pursuing a deal that will be in the best interest of Canadians,” he added.
Carney made the remarks at a three-day gathering of Canada’s premiers that focused, in part, on how they would approach an Aug. 1 deadline.
“Our phone is ringing off the hook from other countries that want to do more with Canada,” Carney said, according to the outlet.
“I’ve had over 80 bilaterals with world leaders since I became prime minister. A number of the premiers have been on major trade missions. We have other things to do,” he said.
Uncertainty has riddled leaders dealing with President Trump’s efforts to improve global trade with longtime international partners.
“Donald Trump is very, very hard to deal with, just because it’s so fluid. It’s constantly moving,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said of the matter, according to The New York Times.
“You talk to him one day, and all of a sudden he’s on some media outlet saying there’s a 35 percent tariff,” he added.
Ford has visited Washington multiple times this year attempting to hammer out tariff agreements with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick after threatening to tax electricity imports from the Great White North.
Canada’s leaders have been strategizing how to satisfy Trump ever since.
“We would like to have the ideal deal, but what can we get? You almost need to ask Donald Trump, and I’m not even sure that he knows himself what he wants,” Quebec Premier François Legault said, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
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