Carney Says Canada Making Progress on Trade Deal After Long Trump Call

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday that Canada and the United States are making progress toward a trade deal after a lengthy conversation with President Donald Trump and senior administration officials, Newsmax reported in a post on X.

“I had a long, substantive conversation with President Trump just before leaving for this trip. President Trump, Ambassador (Jamieson) Greer, Chief of staff (Stephen) Miller,” Carney told reporters in Manila, according to CP24. “We are making progress. There is the possibility of a bilateral deal, but we are not there yet.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday that he had a lengthy conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump and senior administration officials before leaving for Europe and Asia and that the two countries are making progress toward a trade deal after negotiations…

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) November 14, 2026

Autos remain the sticking point

Carney said Ottawa will not accept an agreement that undercuts Canada’s automobile industry, CBC News reported. “Lots of people think that we should just go and take whatever deal,” Carney said, according to CBC. “This government will not settle for a deal with the United States that is not consistent with a viable Canadian auto sector.”

Carney called the auto sector “one of the most challenging issues” in the negotiations, adding, “This is one of the fundamental issues in our trade negotiation, and we are making progress toward that,” CBC News reported.

The prime minister argued that a stable arrangement would help both countries. “The sooner that we can get to a stable trading relationship under the new trade policy of the United States for the auto sector, it’s absolutely in the interest of course of Canadian workers, Canadian auto sector, but very much the U.S. as well,” Carney said, according to CBC.

Carney said he sees a one-on-one deal with the United States to scale back U.S. tariffs that currently cover steel, aluminum and autos, The Globe and Mail reported. The Trump administration’s 25 percent tariff on Canadian-made autos, minus a carve-out for U.S. parts, has put heavy pressure on an industry that typically exports nearly 90 percent of its production to the United States, according to The Globe and Mail.

Talks broke down in August

The latest discussions follow the breakdown of negotiations in August, when Canada suspended talks over what it called last-minute demands from Washington, The Times of India reported. CBC News reported that those demands included a hit to Canada’s auto sector.

In August, Washington offered to lower the headline auto tariff rate to 15 percent as part of a broader deal that would have reduced several sectoral duties in return for concessions from Ottawa, The Globe and Mail reported.

The Times of India reported that Trump said before the U.S. midterm elections that the two countries were close to an agreement, and that Carney later indicated Washington had withdrawn demands concerning Canadian cultural policies, French-language protections and Ottawa’s ability to strike trade deals with other countries.

Canada courts Asian markets

Carney made his remarks in Manila as he announced that Canada and the Philippines had concluded talks on a free trade agreement, CP24 reported. “We expect trade between our countries to triple over the course of the next decade,” Carney said, according to CP24.

Carney also said negotiations on a broader trade pact with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been “substantially completed,” CP24 reported. The Canadian government estimates the ASEAN deal could add nearly 2 billion Canadian dollars to the country’s economy, The Times of India reported.

Carney has set a target of doubling Canadian exports to markets outside the United States by 2035, according to The Times of India.

Sources

• Newsmax on X
• CBC News: Carney says Canada will only sign a U.S. trade deal that includes viable auto sector
• CP24: Canada-U.S. trade deal closer, Carney says
• The Globe and Mail: Canada making progress in USMCA talks on auto sector, Carney says
• The Times of India: Canada, US make progress on trade deal

Reporting by Daily Beltway.