Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced the suspension of trade negotiations with the United States, arguing that the progress achieved in the talks was not sufficient to meet Ottawa's objectives.
Carney said Canada had worked to reach a fair agreement that would guarantee the country the best possible access to the US market and more security for Canadian businesses and workers.
"We made significant progress towards improving Canada's position, having the best deal in the world with the United States. However, this progress has not been sufficient to meet our objectives for Canadians. As a result, this evening I decided to suspend trade negotiations with the United States and instructed Canada's negotiators to return to Ottawa," Carney declared.
The Canadian prime minister said the country's negotiators had worked "hard and in good faith" to protect Canada's interests until the final moments of the talks. However, he criticized the latest changes proposed by the American side.
"Last-minute changes to the terms proposed by the US were unfair, economically disadvantageous and called into question the credibility of any agreement," Carney said.
The clash between the two countries comes on the eve of the entry into force of new US tariffs of 50 percent on Canadian goods, worth about $28 billion.
Carney warned that Canada will respond to US measures with equivalent tariffs in order to protect its businesses and workers.
"Canada will respond to these tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses," he said.
Negotiations in Washington resumed Thursday morning, just before a midnight deadline when 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods worth about 30 billion Canadian dollars, or about 22 billion U.S. dollars, were expected to take effect.
Until the last hours, both sides had declared that they were close to a deal. US President Donald Trump had said on Wednesday that a "very fair" deal had been reached, but negotiations ended without a final agreement.
