“The same problem”: why the United States and Canada are still far from a trade agreement

The United States and Canada are flirting again.

Washington and Ottawa have increased the pace of their trade negotiations over the past week, after the president Donald Trump and Prime Minister Marc Carney spoke by telephone on October 21.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick who helped torpedo a previous round of negotiations over the summer, and the Canadian Minister of Commerce Dominique LeBlanc They have spoken regularly since then, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. They mainly discussed Trump’s tariffs on sectors like automobiles and steel, which have always been a sticking point for Canada.

A senior Canadian government official told POLITICO that talks remained informal on Tuesday.