--- title: "US and Canadian negotiators run at a midnight tariff deadline" description: "Tariffs of 50 percent on about $20 billion of Canadian goods take effect at 12:01am Eastern on Saturday unless a deal lands first. Canada's negotiator says the two sides are very close. Even a deal would leave most of the tariffs of the past 18 months in place." category: "Business" category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/business author: "James Whitmore" published: 2026-08-21T19:37:56.000Z updated: 2026-08-21T19:37:56.000Z canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/us-and-canadian-negotiators-run-at-a-midnight-tariff-deadline tags: ["trade", "tariffs", "canada", "united-states", "usmca"] --- # US and Canadian negotiators run at a midnight tariff deadline Tariffs of 50 percent on about $20 billion of Canadian goods take effect at 12:01am Eastern on Saturday unless a deal lands first. Canada's negotiator says the two sides are very close. Even a deal would leave most of the tariffs of the past 18 months in place. American and Canadian negotiators spent a third day in Washington trying to close a trade agreement before [tariffs of 50 percent on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods take effect at 12:01am Eastern time on Saturday](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/21/us-canada-negotiators-race-to-ink-a-deal-as-trumps-tariff-deadline-looms). The deadline had already been pushed back once, from Wednesday. Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister responsible for trade with the United States, said the two sides were [ "very close" to a deal but that "more work was necessary"](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/21/us-canada-negotiators-race-to-ink-a-deal-as-trumps-tariff-deadline-looms). He has been negotiating with the US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer. ## What is actually on the table The shape of a deal, as reported, is a reduction rather than a removal. [Tariffs on Canadian vehicles would fall to 15 percent from 25 percent, and tariffs on steel and aluminum would be halved to 25 percent](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/21/us-canada-negotiators-race-to-ink-a-deal-as-trumps-tariff-deadline-looms). Those are still tariffs. A quarter of the value of a steel shipment is a very large tax by any historical standard for trade between two countries with a free trade agreement, and this is the good outcome on the table. On the American side, the asks extend beyond tariffs. Washington wants Canada to [rescind provincial bans on sales of American alcohol and to end what President Trump has characterized as "discriminatory treatment of American products"](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/21/us-canada-negotiators-race-to-ink-a-deal-as-trumps-tariff-deadline-looms). Alcohol distribution in Canada is run province by province, which means the federal government is being asked to deliver something it does not directly control. ## The asymmetry The reason Canada is at the table under a deadline is arithmetic rather than diplomacy. [Canada sends roughly 70 percent of all its exports to the United States](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/21/us-canada-negotiators-race-to-ink-a-deal-as-trumps-tariff-deadline-looms). There is no version of this negotiation in which the two sides have comparable leverage. A trade war costs the United States something and costs Canada a great deal more, and both governments know it. That is the structural fact underneath every round of these talks, and it is why Canadian concessions tend to be the currency in which agreements are paid for. ## Which is a political problem in Ottawa Prime Minister Mark Carney's difficulty is that the public has noticed. [Polling indicates 56 percent of Canadians oppose further concessions](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/21/us-canada-negotiators-race-to-ink-a-deal-as-trumps-tariff-deadline-looms), which sets a floor under how much he can give away regardless of the economic logic. That is the bind. The economics point toward accepting reduced tariffs and moving on. The politics point toward refusing to be seen to fold again after 18 months in which each round has ended with Canada conceding something. A prime minister who signs a deal keeping 15 percent tariffs on cars will be asked what exactly he won. ## What a deal would not do It is worth being clear that Saturday is not a cliff edge between tariffs and free trade. Analysts quoted on the talks note that even a breakthrough [would not remove all US tariffs on Canadian goods, and would instead mark a détente after 18 months of escalation](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/21/us-canada-negotiators-race-to-ink-a-deal-as-trumps-tariff-deadline-looms). The relevant comparison is not with the free trade that existed before, but with the alternative on Saturday morning: an additional 50 percent levy on $20 billion of goods, on top of what is already there. Measured against that, a deal is worth having. Measured against the North American trading arrangement of two years ago, it is a considerable retreat. Both of those statements are true, and which one dominates the coverage in each capital will depend on who is doing the framing. ## Sources - [US, Canada negotiators race to ink a deal as Trump's tariff deadline looms](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/21/us-canada-negotiators-race-to-ink-a-deal-as-trumps-tariff-deadline-looms)