U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Prime Minister Mark Carney “apologized” for the Ontario government’s anti-tariff TV ad that scuttled Canada-U.S. trade talks when the two leaders met in Asia this week, but confirmed the negotiations remain paused.
Asked aboard Air Force One on his way to Florida if negotiations will resume, Trump said “no” before praising Carney.
“I have a very good relationship. I like him a lot,” he told reporters.
“He apologized for what they did with the commercial, because it was a false commercial. … He did apologize, and I appreciate it. We had a great dinner with other countries, and I think we have a very good relationship. Personally, I think that what they did was wrong, but he apologized.”
The Prime Minister’s Office referred requests to confirm that Carney apologized to the office of Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose spokesperson would not comment “for now.”
The spokesperson noted Carney, who remains in South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, will be available to comment “in a few hours” on Saturday morning local time.
Carney told Global News on Wednesday that he had a “very good” conversation with Trump at a dinner hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung with other world leaders, but did not say what they discussed.
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“A very good conversation. Always pleasant,” Carney said about Tuesday’s dinner, where he and Trump were seen pointing at each other and appeared to exchange pleasantries.
Trump last week said he was terminating all trade negotiations with Canada over the Ontario ad, which used portions of a 1987 speech by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan that warned against broad use of tariffs.
He has claimed Reagan “loved tariffs” and that the ad “tried to make it look the other way.”
The full speech was ultimately an explanation of why Reagan felt it necessary to impose duties on some Japanese products.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford pulled the ad from American airwaves after speaking with Carney, but allowed it run for two more days after Trump’s announcement so it could play during the first two games of the World Series.
Trump later said he was adding an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canada for not pulling the ad sooner, but has not yet signed an official order.
Carney has said Canada remains ready to resume negotiations with the U.S. and has not said if he disagreed with the ad or the decision to air it.
Despite Trump saying trade negotiations remain on hold, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. said this week that the two countries remain in contact behind the scenes.
“I have had exchanges here with a number of my contacts in the administration. My team has also been having contacts,” said Kirsten Hillman, who appeared by video in front of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa Wednesday.
Hillman, who also serves as Canada’s top negotiator with the U.S., said over the past five days her people have been in touch with officials in the White House, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The conversations are not expressly on the trade negotiations, she added, because people have been advised by their leader that’s “on pause right now.”
—with files from Global’s Uday Rana and the Canadian Press
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