Canada will "never be for sale," Prime Minister Mark Carney says to Donald Trump

For their first face-to-face meeting, the tension was palpable between the two leaders despite the smiles on their faces.

Mark Carney was elected a week ago on the promise of standing up to the American president, whose threats are causing anxiety among Canadians. But he must also avoid antagonizing the American president if he wants to extract a trade deal from him.

Donald Trump, however, reiterated that he would not reverse his decisions regarding tariffs, believing that nothing could force him to reverse them, even after discussions with the Canadian Prime Minister. "That's just the way it is," he said.

The American president has already imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, among other products, and is threatening his northern neighbor with widespread customs duties of 25%.

"Canada is a country that will have to be able to stand on its own two feet economically," said Donald Trump. "There is no reason for us to subsidize Canada."

"White smoke"

Upon the arrival of the Canadian head of government, the two men shook hands and exchanged a few words, then Donald Trump raised his fist for the photographers, followed by Mark Carney.

We should not expect "white smoke" at the end of the meeting, Mark Carney warned on Friday, using a topical metaphor in these times of conclave.

According to him, the old relationship between the two countries based on "increasing integration" is "over," and the question is how the two countries "will cooperate in the future."

Last week, Donald Trump called the new Canadian prime minister a "very nice man," a tone incomparably more amiable than that reserved for former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for whom the Republican billionaire has a fierce antipathy.

Mark Carney, who emerged victorious from the recent general elections, while his party, the centre-left Liberal Party, was facing a resounding defeat just a few months ago, summed up his delicate negotiating position on Friday.

"My government will fight to secure the best (trade) deal. It will take as long as necessary, but no longer," said the former central banker, who is well-versed in crisis management. For example, he steered the Bank of England through the Brexit storm.

A technocrat with no campaign experience, Mark Carney owes his election in large part to Donald Trump.

Since returning to power, the latter has launched particularly violent commercial and political attacks against Canada, repeating that the gigantic country was destined to become the 51st American state.

Different personality

"This is a very important moment for (Mark Carney), since he insisted during the campaign that he could take on Mr. Trump," Geneviève Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, explained to AFP.

"This has to go well to give us a chance for what comes next," the political scientist emphasized. In Canada, many feared a public altercation like the one that pitted Donald Trump against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

The new Prime Minister, with his measured temperament and cautious expression, has a personality very different from that of the eruptive American president, but also from the very extroverted Justin Trudeau.

In the Oval Office, Trump told Carney that he would "love" to reach a new trade agreement with Ottawa, while insisting that he did not want cars or steel from his northern neighbor.

The two countries are currently bound by a free trade agreement (CUSMA) concluded during Donald Trump's first term.

But renegotiating this text would be a long and complicated process, hardly compatible with the American president's stated desire to quickly conclude spectacular commercial "deals".