US President Donald Trump said he spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and that the two would meet after Canada’s election, amid an intensifying tariff war between the neighboring allies and major trading partners.
“It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada,” Trump said in a post to his social media platform on Friday.
Trump’s post called the Canadian leader “Prime Minister Carney” — a break from his practice of the past few months, when he repeatedly mocked Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, as “Governor Trudeau.”
Photo: AFP
Carney released a statement saying the two men agreed to start “comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship” after Canada’s national election on April 28.
However, the Canadian leader also reiterated that his government plans to put retaliatory tariffs in place after the US administration unveils its new import taxes on Wednesday, which Trump has billed “Liberation Day.”
In the meantime, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Canadian Minister of International Trade Dominic LeBlanc would “intensify” their talks to “address immediate concerns,” the prime minister’s office said.
The call between the two leaders was their first since Carney assumed Canada’s top political office on March 14. It came days after Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on imported cars and auto parts, which Carney called a “direct attack” on Canadian auto workers and a violation of the US-Mexico-Canada trade accord known as USMCA, which Trump negotiated during his first term in the White House.
Trump’s trade war against Canada and Mexico, along with repeated suggestions that Canada should become the 51st US state, have cratered ties between the two North American neighbors. The Canadian election campaign has turned into a contest in which US threats against Canada’s economy and sovereignty have become the dominant issue.
Carney told reporters that Trump respected Canada’s sovereignty during the call, which he characterized as “constructive” and “cordial.”
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying