‘Attacked’
by Trump on Trade, Canada Is ‘at War’ With U.S., Carney Says
Prime
Minister Mark Carney gave a powerful speech to Canadians on Saturday morning,
hours after ordering negotiators to suspend U.S. trade talks despite President
Trump’s punishing tariffs.
Ian
Austen
By Ian
Austen
Reporting
from Ottawa
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/world/canada/carney-tariffs-trade-trump.html
Aug. 22,
2026
Updated
4:35 p.m. ET
The
morning after he pulled negotiators from trade talks in Washington and set off
a new round of American tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney called the U.S.
proposal “a bad deal” and said Canada was “at war” with the United States.
“We’ve
recognized from the start that America has changed,” he said in an address to
Canadians on Saturday. “We recognize that sometimes, its signature is written
in pencil.”
“We
cannot accept what they offered and we will not give what they asked,” he
added. “We were not prepared to compromise Canada’s sovereignty or undermine
our key industries.”
In a
muscular, 22-minute speech that let Canadians — and Americans — know exactly
where he stands, Mr. Carney said that Canada was under attack by President
Trump’s punishing tariffs.
“You’re
at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Mr. Carney said.
But
unlike his electrifying speech at Davos that spoke of a rupture in the world
order, Mr. Carney explicitly named the United States as an aggressor and a
threat to Canada and the global economy.
The
latest U.S. tariffs, he said, “are designed to hurt and divide us. They are a
miscalculation because Canadians will always take care of each other. We know
we’re stronger together.”
On Friday
night Mr. Carney blamed unspecified last-minute demands for the collapse of
negotiations, saying that they were “unfair, uneconomic and called into
question the reliability of any deal.” Minutes later, the United States went
ahead with previous plans and introduced 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion
worth of Canadian exports.
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Mr.
Carney immediately promised that Canada will retaliate “dollar for dollar.”
On
Saturday, he said that American negotiators “asked too much and offered too
little.” Among other things, Mr. Carney said that American negotiators pushed
to roll back Canada’s efforts to promote Canadian and French language content
in online streaming services, subsidies for industries like publishing and film
production and even mandatory labeling in French, an official language in
Canada, as well as English on packaging.
“We were
close to reaching a comprehensive agreement with the U.S., but they made
changes, including threats on French language and culture and Canadian culture
that would never be acceptable for that reason,” Mr. Carney said in French.
“That marked the end of that stage of negotiations.”
Mr.
Carney added that the United States wanted Canada to align its trade policies
toward other countries with American tariffs, something he called “a power
play” and “a question of sovereignty.”
During
negotiations, Mr. Carney said, the U.S. side also refused to budge on including
Canadian as well as American parts when calculating tariff payments on Canadian
autos, and refused to reduce the rate for medium and heavy trucks. It also
offered little for companies that make products the United States deems to be
primarily aluminum or steel — a category that ranges from antennas to
snowmobiles. Those products currently face 25 percent tariffs.
The prime
minister’s decision to stand up to President Trump and walk away from
negotiations is the latest fracture in the once-close ties between the
countries. The relationship has drastically deteriorated since Mr. Trump
returned to office, where he has targeted Canada with tariffs, insulted its
leaders and repeatedly proposed that it be annexed as the 51st state.
Mr.
Trump’s trade actions and slights have prompted widespread anger and fear among
Canadians.
The trade
negotiations began in late July, in a bid to ward off new tariffs and to
reverse or at least reduce U.S. tariffs of up to 50 percent on the key auto,
steel and aluminum sectors that were introduced last year.
As he did
on Friday night, Mr. Carney suggested on Saturday that Canada would now double
down on its strategy of disengaging from the U.S. economy, expanding trade with
other countries and diversifying Canada’s economy.
“Last
spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us and
I promised: ‘That will never, ever happen,’” Mr. Carney said. “We are keeping
that promise. Canada is becoming stronger and less dependent on America.”
Unlike
the previous tariffs, the new U.S. measures affect a more varied array of
business sectors, although they disproportionately target building materials
like plywood as well as tissue used for toilet paper, which are significant
exports for the forestry industry. Canadian alcohol is also singled out.
The new
American tariffs only cover a small portion of the $382 billion worth of
products the United States imported from Canada last year, in part because they
conspicuously avoid oil, gas and electricity imports. They also avoid potash, a
key fertilizer not mined in large quantities in the United States.
But many
of the items hit with tariffs, like men’s suits and honey, are often made by
small to midsize companies that will likely be unable to withstand any
significant loss of business.
Trevor
Tombe, a trade economist at the University of Calgary in Alberta, estimates
that the new tariffs could cost upward of 90,000 jobs in Canada.
Mr.
Carney promised 25 billion Canadian dollars in financial assistance to affected
companies.
Exactly
how Canada could retaliate without creating further headaches for Canadian
businesses was not clear. Many manufacturers in Canada rely on supplies and
materials which generally cannot be readily or economically purchased
elsewhere. Canada’s much smaller economic footprint also limits its ability to
inflict significant economic pain on the United States.
Mr.
Carney said that Canada was moving ahead on retaliation “reluctantly, because
we recognize that it will raise costs and reduce choice for Canadians.
Reluctantly, because we recognize that some U.S. companies and states are
innocent bystanders in a dispute they did not want.”
He added:
“We take this step confident that it is in the best interests of Canada and
that by rejecting a bad deal, by standing up for Canada and by focusing on what
we can control, we will build Canada strong for all.”
Mr.
Carney said that Canada’s retaliatory tariffs will come into effect on Sept. 8
and will be focused on “steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp
and paper, electronics.”
Jamieson
Greer, the U.S. trade representative, said on Fox News on Saturday morning that
the Trump administration was “moving forward with measures that respond to
Canadian retaliation.”
Doug
Ford, the premier of Ontario, the most populous province, urged Mr. Carney to
look at using oil, gas and electricity as trade weapons in a letter this week.
Mr. Carney previously downplayed that idea, saying it would jeopardize Canada’s
reputation for reliability.
But polls
show widespread support for export taxes on energy. On Saturday, after
outlining the United States’ energy dependence on Canada, Mr. Carney added: “I
don’t think they want us to stop sending it.”
Mr. Ford
also spoke in defiant terms. “We never started this fight but I assure we’re
going to win this fight,” he told reporters on Saturday, saying he was happy
that Mr. Carney refused to sign a deal that could hurt his province’s
automobile and steel sectors.
“We have
to make sure that as Donald Trump is trying to inflict pain on every Canadian
that we inflict pain right back, until he realizes that we are his number one
customer in the world,” the Ontario premier said. “We have to make sure we look
at every single asset we have, if it’s critical minerals, steel or nickel,
everything is on the table.”
Mr.
Carney said that the free trade agreement between Canada, the United States and
Mexico was “being violated day in, day out” by the Trump administration. On
July 1, the United States declined to renew the pact for another 16 years,
putting it up for annual reviews instead.
Asked on
Saturday what the American actions mean for the continued renewal of the
agreement, Mr. Carney said, in French: “It certainly isn’t good news.”
Ian
Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in
Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at
austen@nytimes.com.
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