1. Carney draws a firm line on autos in Manila
Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday, November 14, 2026, that Canada will not sign a trade deal with the United States unless the terms leave room for a viable Canadian auto sector. He spoke at a news conference in Manila, where he is attending a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Carney said talks with Washington are moving forward after a long call with President Donald Trump earlier in the week. He stopped short of calling the talks a breakthrough, and he said no agreement has been reached.
The prime minister put the point in plain terms for reporters. "This government will not settle for a deal with the United States that is not consistent with a viable Canadian auto sector," Carney said. He added that some people argue Canada should accept whatever Washington offers. "Lots of people think that we should just go and take whatever deal," he said. The remarks set a public test for any draft text that comes out of the talks. A deal that trades away auto production would fail the test Carney set in Manila.
Carney described the call with Trump as long and substantive, and he said senior members of the Trump administration took part. United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller were on the call, according to Carney. The conversation took place just before Carney left for a trip that began in Dublin and continued to Asia for three summits. "We are making progress. There is the possibility of a deal, a bilateral deal. But we're not yet there," Carney said.
2. A 25 per cent tariff and a plant sale frame the stakes
The auto sector sits at the center of the talks because the United States now applies a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian-made autos, with a carve-out for United States parts in the vehicles. The levy has put severe pressure on an industry that typically exports nearly 90 per cent of its production to the United States. Carney called talks over autos one of the most challenging issues in the negotiation with Washington. The tariff, combined with the threat of more last-minute demands, explains why Ottawa treats the sector as a red line rather than a bargaining chip.
Carney faced questions in Manila about the future of the Canadian auto industry after the sale of the Stellantis assembly plant in Brampton. The sale raised fresh doubts about how much vehicle production will stay in Canada in the years ahead. Carney did not announce new measures for the plant in his remarks, and he kept his focus on the trade terms that would govern the sector. His answer tied the fate of Canadian plants to the outcome of the talks, and to the tariff terms that will apply once a deal is signed.
The talks broke down in August, when Canada pulled out after Washington presented last-minute demands that Ottawa viewed as unacceptable. Those demands included terms that would have hit the Canadian auto sector, according to Carney. Three months later, the two sides are talking again, and Carney said they are making headway on terms in the USMCA that would leave a path to profitability for domestic auto production. The August collapse still shapes the talks, and Ottawa is wary of a repeat.
3. Sixty years of shared production shape the bargaining case
Carney argued that the case for protecting Canadian auto production rests on how closely the two industries are tied together. He said the Canadian and United States automotive industries have been closely integrated over the past 60 years, and that the integration benefits both countries. The argument cuts against the idea that moving production south would help American workers. Carney said the longer-term competitiveness of the United States auto sector is determined in part by how closely it is integrated with the Canadian auto sector.
The industry also faces a second test that has little to do with tariffs. Carney said the continental industry is challenged by the speed of production and by electrification, and that its competitiveness depends on major investment in electric vehicles. Plants on both sides of the border must retool for electric models while keeping costs in check. A trade deal that ignores that shift would leave Canadian plants with tariff relief but no clear path to the next generation of vehicles.
That is why Carney described the sustainability of the auto industry as non-negotiable, and tied it to continued market access to the United States. He said he sees a one-on-one deal with the United States to scale back the tariffs that currently cover steel, aluminum and autos. The three metals and vehicle tariffs sit together in the talks, and relief on one without the others would leave parts of the supply chain exposed. Ottawa wants the package to cover the full set of duties that weigh on Canadian producers.
4. What a deal would need to cover, and what comes next
No text has been published and no signing date has been set, so the next test will be whether negotiators can turn the leaders' call into written terms. Carney said the two sides are making progress, and he pointed to the auto terms as the measure of that progress. Watch for any statement from United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who took part in the call with Trump and Carney. A draft that protects Canadian auto production would show the talks have moved past the August impasse.
Carney spoke in Manila while also announcing that Canada had wrapped up talks on a trade agreement with the Philippines. The announcement showed Ottawa is building trade ties in Asia while it presses Washington for a bilateral deal. Canada has also substantially concluded free trade negotiations with ASEAN, the Southeast Asian bloc, as part of the same push. The Asian deals give Canada more options, and they reduce the pressure on Ottawa to accept a weak deal from the United States.
For now, the talks remain open, and Carney has drawn the line in public. A deal that leaves Canadian auto plants without a path to profit would fail the test he set in Manila. A deal that scales back the tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos while keeping Canadian production viable would pass it. The next round of talks will show which outcome Ottawa and Washington are moving toward, and the auto terms will be the first place to look.