Trump hails last-minute deal with Canada to avoid crippling tariffs as he breathes fresh life into plan for giant oil pipeline

Donald Trump announced that the United States and Canada have made a deal that will pause 50 percent tariffs on $20billion worth of Canadian products. 

Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney had been negotiating earlier Tuesday ahead of a 12:01am Wednesday deadline set by the President.  

The President wrote on Truth Social Tuesday: ‘I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!’ 

Without offering details, Trump suggested the agreement could bring back the Keystone XL pipeline between the two countries, which got partially built before President Joe Biden, citing climate change, canceled its permit on the day he took office in 2021.

‘The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!’

Trump also posted an AI image of himself digging the pipeline out of a grave that read ‘Buried by Biden.’ 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Prime Minister Carney for comment.  

Carney and Trump had spoken twice by phone in the past two days about the ongoing negotiations, including another call Tuesday afternoon, Carney´s office said, underscoring the last-minute push for a deal.

Without offering details, Trump suggested the agreement could bring back the Keystone XL pipeline between the two countries, which got partially built before President Joe Biden , citing climate change, canceled its permit on the day he took office in 2021

‘We are negotiating,’ Carney told reporters Monday, speaking in French. 

‘The negotiations are very intense and delicate. This is not the time to talk about negotiations in public.’ 

The two countries have wrangled for decades over trade, poking each other over sore spots like Canadian softwood lumber imports and US access to Canada´s protected dairy market.

Trump’s import taxes would have hit about five percent of what Canada ships to the United States every year, including products ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors.

But the political impact would likely have been bigger than the economic one. 

Canada had threatened to retaliate against any new tariffs with levies of its own, aggravating a trade fight between countries that sold each other $880 billion worth of goods and services last year.

Nearly 72 percent of Canada’s goods exports last year went to the United States. 

And the Trump administration might be wary of imposing a hefty new tariff — paid by US importers who try to pass along the cost to consumers via higher prices — ahead of November’s midterm elections. 

US voters are already frustrated with the high cost of living. 

The Canadians would like relief from US tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as softwood lumber, which the US says receives unfair government subsidies. 

Trump’s approach to dealing with Canada marks an extraordinary departure from the traditionally cooperative relationship between the two countries. 

He has hit Canadian goods with tariffs — in a push to bring manufacturing back to the US — and has repeatedly made inflammatory comments about turning Canada into America’s 51st state.

The Canadian public has responded in kind. 

A petition to expel the US ambassador, a Trump ally, has collected nearly 218,000 signatures since July 21. It accuses Ambassador Pete Hoekstra of having ‘normalized’ Trump’s talk of annexing Canada, among other complaints.

Trump has made tariffs the centerpiece of his second-term economic agenda. Last year, he imposed double-digit import taxes on almost every country, justifying them by declaring the longstanding US trade deficit a national emergency. 

The Supreme Court in February ruled that he’d overstepped his authority, striking down those tariffs and setting the stage for the federal government to pay refunds to importers. 

This is a developing story.