U.S. ambassador expects Trump to resume trade talks with Canada, but warns of challenging negotiations

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U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra addresses the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta., in September.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

The United States ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra told a business audience Wednesday that he expects stalled trade talks between the two countries to resume, but that it will be challenging for both sides to return to the table.

U.S. President Donald Trump terminated trade talks with Canada last month, but Mr. Hoekstra is confident both parties will return to negotiations.

“It will restart. The question is when,” he said during an onstage conversation Wednesday at the 2025 National Manufacturing Conference in Ottawa.

“The sooner we can get there, the better off it is, you know, for your companies, for your customers and for both countries,” he said.

However, he added, “it’s not going to be easy.”

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At the end of October, Mr. Trump called off the trade talks over an anti-tariff ad campaign from the Ontario government, featuring footage of the late Republican president Ronald Reagan. Mr. Trump denounced the TV ad as “fake” at the time.

Mr. Hoekstra has previously criticized the ad, and did so again Wednesday, saying it intruded in U.S. politics ahead of the country’s gubernatorial, state and municipal elections this month, as well as in a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Mr. Trump’s use of tariffs.

Mr. Hoekstra said he was not happy that a planned deal got “blown up.”

“The strategy was to put wins on the board for both countries,” he said. The ambassador added that the goal of the discussions was to demonstrate both countries could agree on various issues and then move on to other matters.

Those other things, he said, would have been an agreement on critical minerals. “That was the strategy that the President and the Prime Minister reached,” he said.

Mr. Hoekstra said the best objective for Canada would be to get into the “lowest-tariff bucket” that’s going to be proposed by the United States.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that Canada was engaged in detailed, constructive negotiations with Washington on steel, aluminum and energy, while the Americans were taking a sector-by-sector approach, as opposed to a comprehensive deal on trade.

Mr. Hoekstra said he is hopeful for the future, suggesting Canada and the U.S. can dominate in energy, transportation and defence technology if they work together.

“That’s where I hope we are in 10 years, where Canadians and Americans are saying, `Wow. It was hard. Some of this stuff is not easy. Change is not easy … But, boy, we persevered and we got to the right conclusion, and it’s great to be a part of North America.’”

Mr. Hoekstra also said he is supportive of Mr. Carney’s government seeking export markets beyond the U.S. for Canadian products.

“We don’t get upset when the Prime Minister talks about doubling the number of exports to countries other than the United States.”

“It’s like, Hallelujah, a strong Canada – a strong and prosperous Canada is good for us. You don’t want to live in a weak neighbourhood. You want to live in a neighbourhood where you have got strong neighbours so that you can feed off each other, build each other up, benefit from the strength of the cross-border relationship.”