As the Canada-U.S. tariff war continues for targeted industry sectors, trade negotiators on both sides of the border have decided to play the waiting game for now. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer stated late last week that there is no hurry to get back to the table.
“President Trump is comfortable where we are on Canada. We’re still getting what we need from them, in terms of oil, gas, potash, all of these things. We’re shipping Ag back and forth across the border. So, there’s still a lot of trade between the two countries. We’re comfortable with where we are. We gave them a deal. They left. No urgency on our side.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney, at an event in Vancouver last week, said that Canada is ready to return to the table when the U.S. side is ready to negotiate in good faith. Responding to a reporter’s question about President Trump’s comment that the ongoing trade dispute could soon force a Canadian surrender and an apology from its leaders, Carney brushed the comment aside.
“Trump said yesterday he thinks Canada will apologize in the next 3 to 4 weeks (chuckle). So I’ll just say this on trade. It continues to be the case that Canada stands ready to negotiate in good faith, a mutually advantageous trade arrangement that respects both our countries’ sovereignty.”
Carney went on to say that he has no plans to apply any new trade pressure on the U.S. as Americans prepare for Midterm elections.
However, political analysts say that even a strong win for Democrats in Congress might not make a return to trade normalcy a certainty. A split in political power could well lead to government deadlock, leaving trade issues in limbo, with some of Canadian industries locked out of the U.S. market for the next two years.
Eric Ham, a Canadian political analyst based in Washington, D.C., says that some members of Congress on both sides of the aisle want to see this trade war come to an end. Ham thinks that a battle for control of trade policy is coming, regardless of who wins the Midterms.
“A number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are becoming increasingly anxious about this trade war. The longer it goes on. No matter who wins in the midterm elections, this could actually pit the White House versus Congress, as Congress may seek to actually take back some of those trade authorities. And Canada could be left out in the cold, as a result.”