Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is set to meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington this week, CTV News has confirmed.
LeBlanc is scheduled to leave for Washington on Tuesday, though a date and time for the meeting itself has yet to be decided.
The development comes just days after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday that Canada will be dropping some of its countertariffs on American goods, amid a protracted trade war between the two countries.
The trip is the latest in several that LeBlanc has made to Washington in recent months, as officials continue negotiations to hammer out a new economic and security deal.
After a deadline to ink a new agreement by Aug. 1 came and went, U.S. President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Canadian goods that are not covered by the countries’ free-trade deal to 35 per cent.
Canada, meanwhile, has had a slate of counter-levies in place on American goods for months, on items ranging from Florida orange juice to Kentucky bourbon.
Last week, Carney and Trump had what the Prime Minister’s Office described as a “lengthy” and “substantive” phone call. The following morning, Carney held a virtual meeting of his cabinet, and hours later announced Canada would be dropping its counter-measures on the American goods that are covered by the free-trade agreement.
Trump still has a series of stacked sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper, and autos. Canada’s counter-levies on those products will remain in place, Carney said.
When asked by a reporter whether he received assurances from Trump that scrapping some counter-measures will kickstart negotiations on a new trade and security deal, Carney said: “yes.”
He also said that Canada and the U.S. agreed to “intensify” discussions to address trade challenges and “to seize major immediate opportunities, both in trade, investment and security.”
In late July, during another trip to Washington to meet with Lutnick and several other U.S. lawmakers, LeBlanc said he was feeling “encouraged” by the discussions, though he indicated the government’s priority was to get the “best deal” for Canada, rather than one by the Aug. 1 deadline.
“Canadians expect us to take the time necessary to get the best deal we can in the interest of Canadian workers,” LeBlanc said at the time.
“So, we are only going to be in a position to accept a deal when the prime minister decides that it is the best deal we can get in the interest of Canadian workers and the Canadian economy,” he also said
With files from CTV News’ supervising producer Stephanie Ha
