Mr. Carney goes to Washington

Prime Minister Mark Carney calls the meeting with US Donald Trump constructive and positive.

Carney went to Washington on Tuesday to try to get the Americans to reduce or get rid of tariffs altogether.

He calls this a starting point, not the end point of negotiations.

“The breadth of discussion and how concrete the discussions were…these are the discussions you have when you’re looking to find solutions, as opposed to laying down terms, if you will,” Carney told reporters following his lunch meeting with the president and his entourage.

“So, I feel better about that.”

Carney believes the two governments will continue to negotiate.

“As a said before I came here, I wouldn’t have expected white smoke coming out of this meeting.  That was not my expectation, because of the nature of the negotiation.  So, you don’t expect to have specific progress as things move along, even when you’re making progress.”

Carney tried to convey to Trump that tariffs “are not in the interest of American competitiveness and jobs”, but he suggests Canada has more work to do to convince his US counterparts.

He also says he made it very clear to Donald Trump that Canada was not for sale, and to refrain from calling us the 51st state.