Carney cautious about report of potential Canadian trade deal with US

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OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday expressed caution after a newspaper reported he might soon sign a trade deal on steel and aluminum with the U.S., saying “I wouldn’t overplay it.”

The Globe and Mail, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the agreement could be ready for Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump to sign at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this month in South Korea.

Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and autos earlier this year, prompting Ottawa to respond in kind. The two sides have been in talks for weeks on a potential steel and aluminum deal.

“We’ll see. We are in ongoing discussions with the Americans, and I wouldn’t overplay it,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa when pressed about the report, adding that he planned to meet Trump in South Korea.

The White House and U.S. Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours. 

The U.S. is not ready to make any deal on Canadian automobiles or on softwood lumber, a sector which has been targeted by Washington for decades.

Canada will probably have to accept quotas on steel in exchange for a lower U.S. tariff, with critical minerals off the table in these talks, sources told the Globe and Mail.

Reuters reported earlier this week that Canada offered tariff relief on some steel and aluminum products imported from the U.S. and China, in efforts to help domestic businesses battered by a trade war on two fronts.

Carney visited Washington earlier this month and said he had “a meeting of minds” with Trump on the future of the steel and aluminum sectors.

(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Paul Simao)