US suggests Canada had political motivations to refuse negotiations

ANDin a statement to the CNBC station, Greer stated that Washington attempted to “accommodate Canadians by halving tariffs on steel and aluminium, significantly reducing tariffs on cars and even on products such as sawn timber,” covering “something sensitive issues” for the long-standing ally.

“ They just wanted more. I don't know if it was a political matter for them. It certainly doesn't make any economic sense, but it may have been politically motivated, because they have mid-term elections coming up. I don't know, but they came and wanted more, and we weren't willing to give in ", stressed.

According to the representative of the White House, Canada “showed its desire to negotiate” a month ago, which was accepted by Washington.

“ We were prepared to move forward in good faith, and so we did,” said the negotiator, adding that “they offered better access to the American market than any country in the world.”.

“On Tuesday night, we had made enough progress to announce that we had found a way to an agreement. Then we started to finalize it, but in the last few hours, issues arose in which Canadians simply wanted more ", detailed.

The failure of the negotiations last week led to the imposition of 50% US tariffs on approximately 20 billion dollars of Canadian products, which came into force on Saturday morning.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced on the same day as “unacceptable” the conditions added by Washington in the “last hours” before the deadline for implementing the new tariffs, which he considers “a miscalculation”.

According to Carney, the terms proposed by Washington threatened Canadian sovereignty, would limit its ability to negotiate treaties with other countries and harm strategic sectors such as the automobile industry.

In response, he announced that his country would match Washington’s new “dollar per dollar” tariffs as of September 8.

The decision of the liberal leader was celebrated by the provincial authorities, the media, trade unions and even opposition members, including critics of the Canadian Prime Minister, such as conservative Pierre Poilievre, who said that “a bad deal” could not be accepted and appealed to national union against Washington tariffs.

American President Donald Trump today increased tensions with Canada by threatening to raise the tariffs to 50% on all cars, trucks (large and small), car parts and steel imported from Canada as of January 1, 2027.

Relations between the Allies deteriorated after the Republican's return to power. Since then, he has imposed tariffs on Washington’s trading partners and repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st state” of the United States, provoking Otava’s indignation.