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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Donald Trump that his country was “not for sale” after he refused to push the US president to make Canada the 51st US state during a White House meeting on Tuesday.
“As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never on sale,” Carney Trump told a largely compelling exchange in the Oval Office. “Meeting with the owners of Canada during the campaign. It’s not for sale. It will never be on sale,” he said.
But in a sign that tensions are likely to continue between Washington and Ottawa, Trump replied, saying, “Never say never.”
“I’ve had a lot, a lot of things that were not possible, and they ended up being possible, and only possible in a very friendly way,” Trump said, adding: “Over time, we’ll see what happens.”
The White House meeting was the first meeting of people since Carney won the Canadian elections last month on a set anti-trump platform.
The US president’s hostility to his northern neighbor – with repeated threats to the Canadian attachment and setting tariffs in violation of a free trade agreement – prevailed in the Canadian election campaign and helped postpone Carney’s Liberal Party to victory.
But Trump opened the conversation with a friendly trick for Carney’s victory. “I think I was the biggest thing that happened to him,” he said, adding: “It was probably one of the biggest returns in the history of politics, perhaps even greater than mine.”
He then described the prime minister as a “very talented person, a very good person”.
“I have a lot of respect for this man,” he added.
Carney, who joked that he was on the “edge of my seat” during the meeting, said he was focused on improving protection, strengthening the border and fighting Fentanyl’s trafficking. Both he and Trump said they were open to renegotiating the USMCA trade agreement, which succeeded oil during Trump’s first term, and is ready for consideration next year.
“USMCA is a good deal for everyone,” Trump said. “It was actually very effective and still very effective, but people have to follow it, and that has been a problem,” he added. Carney said: “(USMCA) is a basis for a wider negotiation. Some things about it will have to change.”
But the US president made it clear that he remained skeptical of free trade with his Canadian neighbors, especially in certain sectors, such as cars and metals.
“We want to do our cars. We don’t really want cars from Canada,” Trump said. “And we don’t want steel from Canada because we’re making our steel, and we have massive steel plants that are being built now as we talk,” he added.
Carney is scheduled to host the G7 leaders’ summit in Alberta next month, but was not mentioned for the meeting during public words at the Oval office.
