Carney to hold press conference in Ottawa after trade talks collapse

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney will hold a press conference on Saturday morning after suspending trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and announcing steep retaliatory tariffs.

Just minutes before a midnight deadline on Friday night, Carney said that Canada was withdrawing from the talks because “last-minute changes” to the agreement made by the U.S. “were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

Canada and the U.S. were engaged in negotiations to reach a deal that would avert new 50 per cent tariffs on $29 billion-worth of Canadian goods. Now, those levies will come into effect and Carney has pledged to match them dollar-for-dollar on U.S. goods.

The government also announced on Friday that it would introduce “additional measures to support Canadian workers and businesses” affected by the U.S. tariffs.

Carney will also hold a cabinet meeting at 12:15 p.m. and a meeting with provincial premiers at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, according to his itinerary.

After the two sides broke off talks, the Americans blamed Canada for the breakdown in negotiations.

“Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days,” said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, in a statement posted on social media on Friday night.

Carney will hold a press conference in Ottawa at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

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