Prime Minister Mark Carney makes a statement outside the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council in Ottawa, on July 21, 2026. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump the day after Washington announced additional 50 percent tariffs on certain Canadian goods, and that the two leaders agreed to accelerate trade talks.
“I spoke with President Trump earlier this morning. We agreed to intensify negotiations in the coming weeks, and the team and myself look forward to doing that,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa on July 21.
Trump signed proclamations on July 20 imposing 50 percent tariffs on a wide array of Canadian goods, including alcohol, dairy products, cement, and sporting equipment.
The White House said the new tariffs were a response to what it described as Canada’s discriminatory treatment of U.S. products, including provincial restrictions on U.S. alcohol, Canada’s dairy supply management and market-access policies, and Canada’s retaliatory measures affecting U.S. motor vehicles.
initially responded to U.S. tariffs related to cross-border fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration imposed in early 2025 with a slew of counter-tariffs of its own. Many provinces also responded by taking U.S. alcohol off the shelves of provincially run liquor stores.
While Canada later lifted most of those measures in September 2025, Carney said at the time that he would maintain the counter-measures in kind in response to Washington’s sectoral tariffs, including those on auto parts, steel, and aluminum.
Carney said in a July 20 statement that the U.S. sectoral tariffs are “in violation” of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and that Canada’s counter-tariffs were put in place in response to those measures. The prime minister said Canada has made a series of “comprehensive and detailed proposals” in recent months to modernize CUSMA.
Carney also said he would be discussing the tariffs in his upcoming meeting with provincial premiers. He said Ottawa is seeking a “comprehensive agreement” that benefits both countries and complies with CUSMA.
The prime minister was asked by reporters on July 21 about the provinces’ ban on American alcohol. In his response, Carney noted those decisions had been made by the provinces themselves and said any decisions to lift the ban on U.S. alcohol should be made “as part of an overall agreement.”
U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned the new tariffs briefly on July 21, telling reporters in the White House that Canada had been “very, very tough on us over the years.”
“I love Canada. I love the people of Canada. [I have] many friends that live in Canada, but their leadership—from Trudeau to the current leadership—I mean, in all fairness to them, they need us to survive,” Trump said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
that Trump’s new upcoming tariffs are “unjustified and wrong” and will hurt both Canadian and American workers.
Poilievre called for the House of Commons International Trade Committee to urgently convene and “hear the government’s plan to prevent these new tariffs from taking effect and fight for tariff-free trade.”
Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.
