Carney and Trump are holding private talks to drop tariffs

Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump are having discussions out of the spotlight to reach a trade deal and lift tariffs.

Sources with knowledge of the conversations first confirmed the calls with CBC/Radio-Canada and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly later told reporters that Carney and Trump are talking to each other.

A source, who spoke on the condition they not be named, said the two leaders have had a few phone calls in the evenings and exchanged text messages about trade since Carney's visit to the White House last month. 

There have been no public readouts of the talks between Carney and Trump.

Sources said the conversations are aimed at reaching an agreement on the trade war launched by the U.S. against Canada.

Carney and Trump have talked openly about a desire to chart a new economic and security deal, but the Canada-U.S. relationship appeared to hit a snag earlier this week when Trump doubled tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.

The tariffs, now at 50 per cent, are a further blow to the Canadian industries that are the U.S.'s biggest supplier of the metals.

On Wednesday, Carney only said "intensive discussions" were ongoing and that his government was readying reprisals if negotiations with the United States failed. 

Sources told CBC/Radio-Canada they are hoping for some sort of Canada-U.S. trade deal by the time Trump and Carney meet at the G7 summit — just 10 days from now in Alberta.

Asked Thursday how close the two sides are to a deal, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he's not talking about it publicly. 

Speaking in French, Joly confirmed there have been talks and said it's normal during a trade war to have diplomatic discussions.

"We won't negotiate in public," she added in English. "We'll let the prime minister do his work."

A White House spokesperson told CBC News that Trump was "directly" involved in talks with Canada, but didn't mention Carney specifically.