[UPDATED] Glacier FarmMedia—Supply management won’t be part of trade negotiations and tariff discussions, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday.
“With respect to supply management, I have been clear: from the very first day of the launch of my leadership campaign,” Carney told media in Montreal.
“We will never have discussions with respect to supply management, it’s off the table.”
Carney said he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump Friday morning in what he called a “very constructive, very productive discussion.”
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When asked if it would be necessary to have a bill protecting supply management, Carney said “what one needs to ensure that is to have a government and a Prime Minister with that commitment, with a strong mandate.”
Support for supply management among Canadians has been mixed: According to a recent Angus Reid poll, 29 per cent of Canadians want to eliminate supply management for dairy, eggs and poultry and 23 per cent want to keep it in place.
Call ‘extremely productive’ says Trump
The call was Carney’s and Trump’s first contact since Carney won the Liberal leadership on March 9.
“It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
That work “will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada,” he added.
Trump – who often muses about annexing Canada – referred to Carney as the Canadian prime minister rather than as the governor of the 51st U.S. state, the term he often used to describe former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“The president respected Canada’s sovereignty today, both in his private and public comments,” Carney told a press conference in Montreal, saying the phone call had been very cordial.
Carney on Thursday vowed to transform Canada’s economy to be less dependent on the United States. Trump’s tariff announcement is expected on April 2. Ottawa has made clear for months that it will impose countermeasures.
“I informed President Trump that my government will be implementing counter tariffs to protect Canadian workers and our economy following the announcement of new trade actions by the United States on April 2,” Carney told the press conference.
Carney said the two leaders had agreed to begin comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately after the April 28 federal election.
Canada, along with Mexico, is part of the Canada-United States-Mexico (CUSMA) free trade deal that is scheduled to be reviewed next year. Carney said he did not know whether Mexico would take part in the talks on a new economic security relationship, adding it was Canada’s preference that it be present.
Carney reiterated that Canada needed to find new trading partners and said that if he won the election, he would set up a C$5 billion trade diversification fund to help the construction of ports, railroads, inland terminals, airports, and highways.
