Canada sees long trade war with U.S. that may last beyond midterms

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government sees little chance of resuming talks with President Donald Trump before the midterm elections after trade talks collapsed , according to people familiar with the matter.

The Canadian leader, who said he will prepare a domestic aid package to help businesses hurt by United States tariffs , is designing those measures to ride out the balance of Trump’s term if necessary, added the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

The preparations from Carney signal the gravity of the breakdown in talks late Friday, which led Trump to impose new tariffs and Carney to announce retaliation, risking a spiralling trade fight between the two closely integrated economies .

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While Carney’s government sees no sign of new talks in the near future — and only a dim chance before the midterms — some of the people cautioned the situation remains fluid and the U.S. has not ruled out a restart.

The sudden collapse of talks has left Carney bracing for the risk of a long winter. He announced Saturday that he’d roll out a domestic aid package, and told premiers over the weekend that the support would remain in place for the duration of the conflict and throughout the rest of Trump’s term if need be, one of the people said.

“We will support these businesses for as long as it takes, in other words, beyond the life of this U.S. administration,” Carney told reporters. “So there’s various mechanisms that we’ve worked up. We’ll give all the details in a few days.”

Carney’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment Sunday evening. In an interview earlier in the day, his ambassador to Washington, Mark Wiseman, said Carney’s decision to enact his retaliation on Sept. 8 is not a sign of an anticipated last-minute return to talks. “I don’t think it should be viewed that way,” he said.

The U.S. has said the path for talks is unclear. “It’s hard to say. We don’t have new talks planned with the Canadians. We’re moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox News on Saturday.