US drops demands on Canadian culture, including French language

The US has withdrawn its attacks on Canadian culture and its French language, leaving the door open to resume trade talks, Canada’s chief negotiator said on Thursday.

“Canada welcomes that the U.S. is now withdrawing its positions on discoverability and labelling and is confirming that measures to promote French language and Canadian culture will not be subject to future U.S. trade actions,” Dominic LeBlanc posted on X.

“We look forward to further constructive U.S. clarifications on their other positions which would create the possibility of a mutually beneficial trade deal that respects Canadian sovereignty.”

It appeared the two countries were close to a deal which would have staved off new 50% US tariffs on CAN$27 billion (US$29.5 billion), but Canada balked last Friday and Prime Minister Mark Carney abruptly ordered a pullout of trade talks after the US made a few last-minute demands that Canada considered an attack on its sovereignty.

The US enacted the tariff on about 700 items and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney countered with a promised dollar-for-dollar trade tariff on US imports to take effect Sept. 8.

But while LeBlanc hinted that negotiations could be rekindled, his American counterpart Jamieson Greer said there were no current “open channels’ between the two nations.

Canada has said its targets for tariffs is fluid, depending on advice from Canadian businesses. For example, it changed the proposed tariff on seafood.

“Based on feedback, we have made select adjustments to protect against broader economic harms,” Finance Canada said in a social media post, including removing seafood and fish products from our list of counter tariffs, while maintaining dollar for dollar and rate for rate responses to U.S. products.