Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is projecting confidence about trade talks with Washington, even as stalled negotiations resulted in the White House placing a higher tariff levy on Ottawa last week.
LeBlanc told CBS' Margaret Brennan on Sunday that he still believes the Trump administration is negotiating in good faith with Canada. He expects President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney to speak in the coming days.
"We believe there's a great deal of common ground between the United States and Canada in terms of building two strong economies that work well together," LeBlanc said on "Face the Nation." "That's been the history of the 40-year Free Trade Agreement that goes back to President Reagan."
Trump imposed heightened tariffs on Canada on Thursday. The levies only apply to goods not covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated in his first term, meaning much of Canada's economy is insulated. Still, Canada's steel and aluminum industries are feeling the heat, with the White House working to revitalize American production capacity.
"We understand and respect totally the President's view in terms of the national security interest," LeBlanc said. "In fact, we share it, and what we've said to our American counterparts is, how can we structure the right agreement, where we can both continue to supply one another in a reliable, cost-effective way that preserves jobs essential to the American economy, but the same thing is true, obviously in Canada as well."
Another wrinkle: Trump last week suggested on his social media platform that Carney’s pledge to recognize Palestinian statehood could imperil talks, making it "very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.”
But LeBlanc, who left Washington on Friday after spending much of the week in town meeting with senior White House officials, remains positive. He cites the connective tissue underpinning the two countries' economies as a key reason for hope.
“One description which I thought was very apt: we don't sell things to each other as much as we build things together," he told Brennan. "And that's why it's difficult in this relationship when so much is integrated, but we remain very optimistic.”
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