LeBlanc and Greer to meet in Washington hours before tariff deadline. Live updates here.

Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and his U.S. counterpart Jamieson Greer are set to meet in Washington on Friday morning, with less than 24 hours to finalize a deal.

Trump’s 50 per cent tariff deadline is set to expire at midnight Saturday.

On Thursday, LeBlanc told reporters in Washington that they are “very close” to an agreement, following an over three-hour long meeting with Greer.

Canadians have remained tight-lipped about the details of the deal. LeBlanc said Wednesday that the country’s dairy supply management system will remain protected.

Multiple sources tell CTV News that there will be reductions in aluminum, steel and auto tariffs, but questions still linger on the outcome of softwood lumber and agriculture.

All premiers say they will comply with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s request to bring U.S. booze back to shelves, but experts and residents say there will still be opposition to buying it.

Follow along for key information:

PM tried to ‘out-tough’ Trump: Vance

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance said Carney tried to “out-tough” Trump in trade negotiations and credited Conservative MP Jamil Jivani as an “effective advocate” in the deal talks.

In audio from a Wednesday fundraiser in Southampton, N.Y., which was provided to The Canadian Press by a source who attended the private function, Vance said Carney is a “very sweet guy” and he gets along with him quite well.

But Carney “comes in and puffs his chest out and says, ‘I’m going to, like, out-tough Donald Trump,’” he added.

“It’s hilarious because Carney presents this as some victory for Canada when fundamentally, like, they climb down on a lot of issues,” Vance told the room.

“But the quiet sort of behind-the-scenes story is that this, like, random MP who has a good relationship with us has been a pretty effective advocate,” he said about Jivani.

Vance added there’s “this guy Pierre Poilievre, who is the leader of the Conservatives in Canada,” adding he is a “non-entity” in negotiations.

The White House and the vice-president’s office have not yet responded to a request for comment.

Winery owner unconcerned about U.S. booze return

An Ontario winery owner says he isn’t worried about a drop in sales should U.S. booze return to store shelves.

Donald Ziraldo, who is the founding chairman of the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), told CTV Your Morning on Friday that provincial bans have boosted sales at local wineries by 25 per cent to 100 per cent.

“People became more aware ... that the Niagara Canadian wines, in particular, are as good as the California, and probably a little bit less expensive,” he said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney asked premiers this week to lift their respective bans, which have been in place since February 2025. All have said they will comply.

The VQA is Canada’s Canada’s official regulatory and appellation of origin system for high-quality wines. A VQA label guarantees that a wine is made entirely from locally grown grapes in Ontario or B.C. and meets strict production and labeling standards.

Ziraldo added that he hopes Quebec and the Maritime provinces will join the alliance to let consumers know which wines are “100 per cent grown in Canada.”

Devika Desai, CTVNews.ca journalist

LeBlanc on trade deal: ‘We’re very close’

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc shared an update following a more than three-hour meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington on Thursday, saying they are “very close” to an agreement.

“We continue to make progress, and we’re going to stay here and do the work that’s necessary until we get to that point,” LeBlanc said to reporters, while also describing the meeting as “long” and “detailed.”

Chief Trade Negotiator Janice Charette, Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Mark Wiseman and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Chief of Staff Marc-André Blanchard were also involved in the meeting.

Stephanie Ha, bureau manager, Ottawa News Bureau

All provinces agreed to restock U.S. liquor: N.L. premier

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham says Canada’s premiers have agreed to return U.S. alcohol to store shelves as part of the tentative trade deal with the U.S.

He said the prime minister is confident an agreement will be reached and that “as part of this agreement, he asked all of the provinces, as a sign of good faith, ‘would we put U.S. liquor back on our shelves,’ and we all agreed.”

Several of the premiers have not commented publicly on the issue.

U.S. alcohol products remain off the shelves in every province except Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Tiffany Hendsbee, CTV News supervising multiplatform writer