Canada, US working towards a new trade deal after Carney, Trump call

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Sunday that he had a "good conversation" with US President Donald Trump on the future of Canada-US trade.

Carney said on social media that the discussion built on "recent constructive discussions on the outlines of a mutually beneficial trade deal" that would create jobs, improve affordability, and fully respect Canada's languages, culture and sovereignty.

"Our teams will now be working in the coming weeks to deliver that outcome," Carney ⁠wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump said ⁠on Sunday that his administration has the "concept" of a new trade deal with Canada after speaking with Carney.

"I ‌spoke to him again yesterday, and we have the concept of ‌a deal that's going to be great for our farmers, ‌great for our country, and we'll be fine for that," Trump told reporters in Dubuque, Iowa.

Carney's latest statement followed comments he made to US media outlet Politico just two days earlier, when he insisted he was in no hurry to strike a trade truce with Trump and would wait out his presidency until 2029, rather than sign an unfavorable deal.

"What is happening is that every month that goes by, Canada grows stronger," Carney said, according to Politico. "Our options increase."

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 before US midterm elections on Tuesday.

Trump said last week that a trade deal with Canada ‌was coming soon, but Ottawa had previously reported limited progress in trade talks, despite efforts to ease tariffs on steel and autos.

Trump said on Sunday that the scope of an agreement would include the Keystone XL pipeline project that he supports, though it was not immediately clear how the project would be revived.

A spokesperson for Dominic LeBlanc, Canada's minister responsible for ⁠trade with the US, had no further comment on Sunday ⁠evening beyond Carney's remarks.

Trump said in August that the pipeline "may be awoken from the grave." The proposed pipeline would have carried 830,000 barrels per day of oil from the oil sands of northern Alberta to the major US ‌storage hub at Cushing, Oklahoma, and then on to Gulf Coast refineries.

Canada, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, sends more than ‌90% of its crude oil production to the ⁠US.

(With input from agencies)