A trade confrontation between the United States and Canada has sharpened after Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on motor vehicles, prompting a blunt response from Mark Carney, who accused the American president of seeking to destroy Canada’s car industry.

The Canadian side has made clear that negotiations will not simply resume on Washington’s terms. Carney said talks would restart only if the United States approached them in a manner he described as acceptable, underscoring how far relations have deteriorated over the future of a tightly integrated North American auto sector.

“Destroy Canada’s auto industry”

— Mark Carney, describing what he said Donald Trump wanted to do

Talks on hold pending a change in tone

Carney’s condition for returning to the table was framed as a question of attitude rather than a detailed list of technical demands. He indicated that Canada would engage again only if American officials came prepared to negotiate in good faith, a signal that Ottawa regards the latest tariff threat as hostile rather than a conventional bargaining tactic.

“He would only resume trade talks if the US comes with the right attitude.”

— Mark Carney, setting out Canada’s condition for restarting negotiations

The automotive industry sits at the centre of the quarrel because vehicle production and supply chains run across the border. Any increase in American duties on cars would land heavily on Canadian plants and parts suppliers that depend on access to the US market, which is why Carney cast the threat in existential terms for the sector.

What is at stake

  • Washington has threatened to raise tariffs on automobiles, intensifying an already fraught trade dispute with Canada.
  • Carney has accused Trump of wanting to destroy Canada’s auto industry.
  • Ottawa has refused to resume trade talks unless the United States approaches negotiations with what Carney called the right attitude.

Neither capital has, on the public record available here, set out a timetable for a return to formal talks. The immediate effect of Carney’s remarks is to place the onus on the White House: further escalation on auto tariffs would meet a Canadian government that has already characterised the American position as an attempt to dismantle a core national industry, and that has made a change in approach a precondition for diplomacy.

How far Trump is prepared to press the tariff threat, and whether Washington will adjust its tone enough to satisfy Ottawa, will determine whether the dispute remains a war of words or hardens into a more lasting rupture in US–Canada trade.