The key facts

  • At a rally in Port Huron (Michigan), Trump said a deal with Canada would be reached 'pretty soon'
  • After the talks collapsed in August, the US and Canada imposed tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of goods from each side
  • On Friday, the White House rolled back part of the tariffs of up to 50% at the request of Senator Susan Collins ahead of the midterm elections

Trump's statement at a rally in Michigan

US President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally on Sunday that a trade agreement between the United States and Canada would be reached according to AFP.

The course of the trade war

Tensions between the neighbors have persisted since August, when trade talks collapsed and Trump responded by imposing a series of new tariffs. According to AFP, these tariffs affected goods worth about $20 billion — from hockey sticks to cement. Canada responded with levies on American goods of an equivalent amount, after which Trump imposed another round of tariffs of up to 50% on certain goods.

'They are ready to give us anything'

'We will settle this pretty soon. They are ready to give us anything right now', Trump said about the future agreement. He again defended his tariffs against Canada and accused it of having 'ripped off the United States' for years.

Partial tariff rollback before the election

On Friday, the White House rolled back part of the tariffs of up to 50% in response to a request from Senator Susan Collins, who represents the border state of Maine, which was disproportionately hit by the trade war. Democrats are targeting Collins's seat in an attempt to take control of the Senate from Republicans in the elections next Tuesday.

Context and significance

Since the start of his second term, Trump, as AFP describes, has upended the global trade order, imposing sweeping tariffs on friends and adversaries alike and claiming that they had taken advantage of the United States; he has directly tied some of the threatened tariffs to political or foreign policy goals. The editorial conclusion from the facts presented: the statement about a quick deal came in the middle of the election campaign, and the rollback of part of the tariffs followed immediately after a request from a senator whose seat is being contested in the election — underscoring the political dimension of tariff policy noted by the source itself. It remains unknown what the terms of a possible agreement would be and when it could be signed: the sources provide only Trump's assessment that it will be reached 'pretty soon.'