Ready to meet Trump if Canadian sovereignty respected, says PM-elect Mark Carney

However, Mark Carney also noted that he respected Trump's concerns for his nation, the Americans and fentanyl.

Canadian prime minister-elect Mark Carney on Wednesday expressed readiness to meet with US president Donald Trump if the latter respects Canadian sovereignty.

Mark Carney, who recently won the Liberal Party leadership race, will be sworn in as the prime minister of Canada in the coming days. (Bloomberg)

The US and Canada have been engaged in what is seen as a rising tariff war, with Trump repeatedly continuing to calling for Ottawa to be come the 51st American state.

Not just this, the US president has also threatened economic damage in his tariff threats, suggesting that the border is just a fictional line between Washington and Ottawa.

Carney has meanwhile said that he is "ready to sit down with president Trump" at the right time under a situation where there is respect for the Canadian sovereignty, adding that they are working for a common approach, "a much more comprehensive approach for trade".

Carney, who recently won the Liberal Party leadership race, will be sworn in as the prime minister of Canada in the coming days, replacing Justin Trudeau.

Speaking to reporters after Trump official increased the tariffs on all Canadian steel and aluminium imports to 25 per cent and said that workers in both the countries would be better off when "the greatest economic and security partnership in the world is renewed and relaunched. That is possible".'

However, Carney also noted that he respected Trump's concerns for his nation, the Americans and fentanyl. He said that the imposition of "unjustified tariffs" on Ottawa was a difficult day for the country.

Canada also responded to Trump's tariffs with its own countermeasures. It said that it is planning to impose retaliatory tariffs of 29.8 billion Canadian dollars from Thursday. Ottawa's new tariffs would be on aluminium and steel products as well as US goods, including computers, sports equipment and water heaters worth CA$14.2 billion.

“We don’t want to do this because we believe in open borders and free and fair trade but we are doing this in response," Carney said.

Canada's new tariffs are in addition to the 25 per cent counter tariffs on CA$30 billion of imports from the US that came into effect on March 4, in response to the other import taxes from Trump.

Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly on Wednesday that the latest tariffs from the US was the "second round of unjustified tariffs" against Ottawa. "The excuse for the first round was exaggerated claims about our border. We addressed all the concerns raised by the US," she added.

Joly further noted that the latest excuse for the new tariffs is national security, "despite the fact that Canada's steel and aluminium adds to America's security. All the while there is a threat of further and broader tariffs on April 2 still looming".

The Canadian foreign minister said that these excuses change every day. "The only constant in this unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump's talk of annexing our country through economic coercion," she said, noting Trump's reiterated remark of Canada's border being a fictional line and his distasteful rhetoric of the 51st state.

Trump has given a number of reasons for his tariff imposition on Canada, especially with him saying that the separate 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports are about fentanyl smuggling and objections to Ottawa putting high taxes on dairy imports that punish the US farmers. He also reaffirmed his call for Canada to become a part of the United States.

Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly, however, said, "(Mark) Carney is a serious person, a serious man, and he'll engage only if there are serious talks."