Trump Says He Won’t Be Meeting With Carney ‘For a While’

U.S. President Donald Trump said he has no plans to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney any time soon after he cancelled trade talks and announced tariffs on Canada would be increased by 10 percent.

“I don’t want to meet with him, no. I’m not going to be meeting with him for a while,” Trump said on Oct. 27 on Air Force One when asked by reporters about a potential meeting with Carney at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea starting Oct. 31.

Carney said earlier this month he could be meeting Trump at APEC where it was “possible” deals could be made on steel, aluminum, and energy.

Trump also told reporters on Air Force One that he did not know when the 10 percent tariff increase on Canada would kick in, and that he did not “really want to discuss it.” The U.S. president also said he is “very happy with the deal we have right now with Canada” and said the United States was going to “let it ride.”

The current deal mentioned by Trump refers to the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA). Under this deal, Carney has repeated in recent weeks that 85 percent of goods cross the border tariff-free, placing Canada in the “best” tariff situation compared to other countries.

Trump announced on Oct. 25 that he would be hiking tariffs on Canada by 10 percent in response to the Ontario government’s decision not to immediately pull its anti-tariff TV ad broadcast in the United States, and instead waiting until after the World Series wrapped up on Oct. 27. Trump had terminated trade talks with Canada on Oct. 23 over the ad, citing a statement by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute that said the ad selectively used audio and video of Reagan, misrepresenting the president’s remarks.

Ontario’s $75 million advertisement campaign featured audio of Reagan’s address to the nation in 1987, where he mentions the value of free trade, including with Canada. Reagan announced at the beginning of his address he was imposing tariffs on Japan, “steps that I am loath to take,” accusing the country of unfair trade practices on the matter of semiconductors. The announcement from Reagan on imposing tariffs on Japan was not included in Ontario’s ad.

Trump told reporters on Oct. 27 that Reagan “liked tariffs,” and Ontario’s advertisement made it appear he did not, which he said was meant to interfere with the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Trump’s tariffs. Trump pushed back on a reporter’s remarks that the ad was run by a provincial government, saying “whether it’s provincial or Canada itself, they all knew exactly what the ad was,” and “the prime minister knew.”

Carney told reporters the same day in Malaysia that he had not spoken with Trump since Oct. 23. The prime minister said he remained “ready” to meet with Trump, and that Ottawa and Washington had made “considerable progress on a supplement to the trading relationship that we had.”

The prime minister also said the federal government had chosen not to run anti-tariff advertisements in the United States, and that it was “obvious for us not to do that.”

Throughout 2025, the United States has placed a wide range of tariffs on Canada, including 50 percent tariffs on steel, aluminum, and copper, 25 percent tariffs on vehicles and auto parts, 10 percent tariffs on oil and potash, and 25 percent tariffs on Canadian exports not covered under the USMCA, which were increased to 35 percent back in August.

The Trump administration previously announced on June 27 it was ending trade talks with Canada because of its recently introduced digital services tax, which would have imposed a new levy on revenue generated by digital services operating in Canada, impacting American companies like Amazon and Netflix. The Canadian government pledged to cancel the tax a few days later, after which Washington resumed trade talks.