WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States was close to making a trade deal with Canada, but Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said work remained to be done and that Washington had dropped some demands.
“Canada is very good, we’re going to make a deal with Canada very soon. We’re going to make a great deal,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
Canada and the United States have slapped billions of dollars in tariffs on each other in recent months. The imposition of tariffs on Canada has emerged as an issue in some northern US border states like Michigan and Maine ahead of Tuesday’s US midterm elections.
Trump and Carney said on Sunday they had spoken about a trade deal.
Carney said the US had withdrawn some earlier demands, including one that would have given Washington final say over any trade deals that Canada might seek to sign with other nations.
“We’ve made progress, but we haven’t finished. You know, if I were to paraphrase it, it’s they’re asking less and they’re offering more, but we’re not quite there,” he told a televised news conference at the end of a summit in Antigua.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington and Dadvid Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Jonathan Spicer )
