Mark Carney’s Speech After Trade Talks With the U.S. Ended

Prime Minister says the U.S. asked for too much and gave too little in talks. He says the U.S. demands were unfair.

Below are Prime Minister Mark Carney’s comments after Canada stopped trade talks with the U.S. and the Trump administration added new 50% tariffs.

Good morning, everyone. I want to update Canadians on what is happening in our trade talks with the United States. I will explain why we are leaving a bad deal and what comes next.

(In French): For most of our history, Canadians could rely on trade winds: a steady relationship with the United States, growing access to the American market, and rules both sides understood and respected. Those winds have not just changed direction – the climate itself has changed.

We cannot control the storm coming from Washington. We can, however, set a new path by making Canada strong at home and by widening our trade links abroad.

We run our own house and are a good partner overseas.

For more than a year, Canada has worked hard and in good faith with the United States to negotiate a new full trade deal. We have been practical, patient and persistent. We tried every chance to reach an agreement that protects Canadian workers and families, strengthens our economy, and respects Canadian independence.

We have no false hopes. We saw early that America has changed. Last year, in this room, I saw that the long‑term process of deeper economic ties was over. Our government knew, before many, that America would change all its trade links, put many tariffs on its closest allies and use economic integration as a tool. We saw that sometimes its promises were written in pencil.

FULL SPEECH | Carney explains why Canada stopped trade talks with the U.S.

We worked in that setting to try to get a fair deal that Canadian businesses and workers could count on. Our goal has always been to get the best deal for Canadians, not any deal at any price or any time frame.

Last month, when the U.S. announced another round of unjustified tariffs, I gave our negotiating team a new order to seek a fair deal made in good faith. I believe people on both sides of the border want this relationship to work. The ties between Canadians and Americans are long and still strong. A trade agreement that benefits both sides is possible. One that respects our independence. One that builds on our shared strengths. One that lowers costs for families on both sides. One that creates jobs for our workers.

Canada has always worked toward these goals, even while America’s focus and commitment have wavered. We have repeatedly offered long‑term partnerships, while America often chose short‑term deals. The gap between partnership and competition has sadly grown wide recently.

So last night I told our negotiators to go back to Ottawa. We cannot accept what they offered, and we will not give what they asked for.

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Over the past year, the U.S. has added many tariffs that break its promises under our agreement with them and Mexico, called CUSMA. The United States has kept changing its reasons for these actions, from fentanyl to taxes on U.S. tech giants, to certification of U.S. aircraft, to sharing bridge tolls that Canada built and paid for, to our dairy policy, to provinces not selling American alcohol during a trade war, to a TV ad quoting Ronald Reagan, to smoke from wildfires while they threatened our communities.

Another main reason the U.S. gives for tariffs is that, since the United States runs, quote, a “trade deficit” with Canada, we were “ripping them off.” The U.S. merchandise trade deficit only exists because the U.S. buys a lot of its energy from Canada. Canada powers American growth: supplying 99% of their natural gas imports, 85% of their electricity imports, 60% of their crude oil imports. I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy.

If you look at the full U.S.–Canada trade balance, which includes many services from finance to entertainment that we buy from the United States, it shows a steady American trade surplus.

Trade is mainly about building mutual strength – creating a relationship that helps both countries. For example, Canada is the biggest buyer of U.S. cars – we buy more American‑built cars and trucks than the United Kingdom, Japan, and China together.

It is the same for American steel. Canada is also the biggest buyer for 26 U.S. states, and a top three buyer for 45 U.S. states. Last year, Americans sold almost $600 billion in goods and services to Canadians – more than $1.6 billion every day. Canadian exports to the U.S. lower costs for American families. In contrast, tariffs are taxes, and taxes are ultimately paid by U.S. consumers.

While the U.S. has added a seemingly endless stream of tariffs and threatened more, Canada has, by contrast, taken several steps in good faith to try to find compromise and secure a full deal in the best interest of both Canadians and Americans.

Our negotiators tried not only to cut tariffs, but also to bring back some certainty and stability: through a new global agreement that Canadian businesses and workers can rely on. That brings me to the recent negotiations.

U.S. signature sometimes “written in pencil,” Carney says

Last month, the U.S. said that starting August 19, it would add 50% tariffs on a range of products from hockey gear to clothing, cement and beer. The only upside of this threat was that it pushed us to negotiate more intensely.

Our goals in these latest talks have been to keep tariff‑free access to the U.S. for most Canadian businesses; second, to give more stability to our trade relationship; third, to cut U.S. tariffs on our key strategic industries so Canadian firms have the best access in the world; fourth, to protect our small and medium businesses by removing the looming threat of new tariffs; and fifth, and most important, to keep Canada’s flexibility, independence, and sovereignty so we can keep building the country Canadians want.

Canada has made offers to get a fair, full deal that would be in the best interests of Canadians. We were ready to drop our remaining retaliatory tariffs on strategic sectors, especially steel, aluminum, and autos, if the United States lowered theirs enough to make it worthwhile for Canadian companies to export to the United States. In return for a fair deal, we would ask our provinces to bring U.S. alcohol back to shelves. We would also take administrative steps to protect supply management without changing the system itself, the U.S. quotas or the tariffs that would apply.

There were some things we would not do. We were not ready to give up Canada’s sovereignty or weaken our key industries.

We would not give up our sovereignty, the protection of the French language, and our culture. To our American partners, let us be clear: for my government and for Canada, these issues were never on the table, even though the United States tried until the very last minute.

Now, in recent weeks, important progress was made toward a possible agreement, an agreement that would have shown Canada having the best deal in the world with the United States, including by securing the best terms in each of Canada’s most important strategic sectors and by giving more certainty about our future trading relationship. While we thought earlier this week that we were moving toward a mutually beneficial agreement, in recent days the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair, and reduced the net benefits to Canada, and raised doubts about any deal’s reliability. In short, they asked too much and offered too little.

More basically, the total effect of U.S. demands showed the limits of their commitment to a true economic partnership. As I said earlier, as a result, last night I stopped trade negotiations with the United States and told our negotiators to return to Ottawa. I want to thank Minister LeBlanc and our chief negotiator Janice Charette. Their team worked hard, in good faith, right up to the last minute to defend the interests of Canadians.

Canada will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses. Our response will focus on sectors such as steel, dairy, appliances, farm equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics. It also includes products currently hit by unjustified Section 232 and 338 tariffs. This is a focused response to protect and defend our industries and let them compete with U.S. products in the Canadian market.

In the coming days, we will publish the details of these new tariff measures, which will start on the Tuesday after Labour Day.

Let me be clear: we take this step reluctantly. Reluctantly, because we know some of these measures will raise costs and reduce choice for Canadians. Reluctantly, because we know some U.S. companies and some U.S. states are innocent bystanders in a dispute they did not want. Reluctantly, because this trade dispute stops Canada and America from doing the many good things we could do together.

At the same time, we take this step confident that it is in Canada’s best interests. By rejecting a bad deal, by standing up for Canada, by focusing on what we can control, we will build a strong Canada for everyone.

Building at home and widening trade abroad is not our Plan B. It has been our Plan A from the start. Canada will keep following this path to build a strong Canada, because it is right and it works.

We are moving quickly to build major infrastructure. We have already sent 27 nation‑building projects to the new Major Projects Office – new ports, mines, energy corridors across the country that now represent $500 billion in new private investment. Projects that will help Canada grow bigger, move faster, and trade more with the world.

Through Housing Canada, we are speeding up the building of affordable homes. In just a few months, this new agency has promised to build nearly 17,000 homes across 17 partnerships. We are building local infrastructure that Canadians use every day thanks to the new Building Strong Communities Fund, a $51 billion investment. More than 100 projects have already been announced across the country—including new hospitals, community centres, and transit lines—under agreements with Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, and Quebec. We will also double the capacity of our electricity grid by 2050 so Canadians have affordable, sustainable energy for generations. Controlling our energy means controlling our destiny.

Last Monday in St John’s, the governments of Canada, Québec, Newfoundland and Labrador launched the largest single investment in Canada’s history to build the biggest clean‑energy project in North America ever. A second James Bay project.

It will make enough clean electricity to power every vehicle in Canada. We are building our economy while taking charge of our security by investing half a trillion dollars into our defence, expanding our shipyards, growing our aerospace industry, and increasing our cyber capabilities. We are also realising Canada’s full potential as an energy superpower, in nuclear, LNG, renewables and low‑carbon oil and gas.

These are the projects that are the future of our country.

Canada is now the best‑connected economy in the world. Over the last year we have signed more than 20 trade and security deals across five continents. We finished our most recent deal, with the UAE, in a record 47 days. Canadian businesses now enjoy tariff‑free access to 1.5 billion consumers. In the next six months, we will double that number through new trade deals from ASEAN to India.

This fall, we will start talks with the European Union – the world’s second‑largest economy – to deepen and strengthen our security and economic partnership.

New U.S. tariffs “are designed to hurt us and divide us,” Carney says

Canada is building such unmatched market access because we are trusted, reliable, and have what the world wants. That’s why the world is coming to our door. In three weeks, we will host the first Canadian Investment Summit in Toronto. The summit will attract the world’s largest investors, who together manage over $100 trillion in assets. They will see a Canadian economy that has never been more connected or more ambitious.

We are cutting taxes, removing barriers, and speeding up the transformation of our economy. We have lowered the tax rate on new business investments to just 13%—4.5 percentage points lower than in the United States and about half the G7 average. We are streamlining approval processes and making them more predictable, while investing alongside the private sector.

We are building a united Canadian economy. Over the past year, we have removed all federal barriers to internal trade. We have made it easier for Canadian workers to use their skills across the country. We are also working with provinces and territories to break down the barriers that have split our economy for generations. We are acting so Canadians can buy Canadian, hire Canadian workers, and build with Canadian materials more easily.

This fall, in Budget 2026, we will go further to make Canada even more competitive and attractive for businesses and strategic investors to build, invest and grow.

The new U.S. tariffs are meant to hurt and divide us. They are a miscalculation. They are a miscalculation because Canadians will always look after each other. We know we are stronger together.

In the last year and a half Canadians have met this moment with resolve, purpose, and strength.

In many ways, visiting our National Parks, buying Canadian products, choosing Canadian. Small acts of solidarity repeated millions of times that send a message: we control our destiny.

The government is matching that spirit with $25 billion to protect Canadian workers and businesses hurt by American tariffs. We are helping small and medium businesses respond by investing in equipment, productivity, and supply‑chain resilience. We are also financing large companies to keep big employers running and keep their workers. We are helping our hardest‑hit industries retool and pivot to new international markets. We are being our own best customer. We have the right plan to build a strong Canada. We are on track and it is working.

At the same time, we know that some of the biggest benefits of this plan, of this transformation, will take time. That’s why we also focus on giving Canadians a boost today and a bridge to a better future.

Tomorrow. So we have cut taxes on income, on housing, and on gas. We have introduced the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit. Up to $1,890 per family helping 12 million Canadians get ahead.

We are stronger now than when the United States started this trade war. More united, more determined, more ambitious. With the strongest fiscal position in the G7 and a resilient economy, Canada has all the resources we need to pivot and prosper. Growth is accelerating, we are projected to have the second‑fastest rate in the G7 this year and next. We are creating jobs at four times the rate of the United States. Our non‑U.S. exports are rising sharply – they are on track to double over the next decade. Foreign direct investment in Canada is at its highest level in two decades. It is growing at twice the rate of our nearest G7 competitor. Canada now ranks as the most attractive country in the world for infrastructure investment.

Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so they can own us. I promised that would never happen. We are keeping that promise. Canada is becoming stronger and less dependent on America. We are already giving ourselves more than they can take away. And we are just getting started.

As we saw earlier this week in St John’s, Canadians do not submit to the weather; we thrive in it. We do not wait to see which way the wind blows or surrender to the waves to be tossed by events. We set our own course. We make our own weather.

In Canada, we are masters of our own house, from coast to coast.

Building Canada strong. For all. Thank you very much and I look forward to your questions.

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