AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
This past week, Canadians voted to keep Liberal leader Mark Carney as their prime minister. And the prime minister made it clear that one of his first priorities will be a visit to Washington.
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PRIME MINISTER MARK CARNEY: On Tuesday, I had a very constructive call with President Trump, and we agreed to meet next Tuesday in Washington. Our focus will be on both immediate trade pressures and the broader future economic and security relationship between our two sovereign nations.
RASCOE: For more on this meeting and all things trade and politics, we're joined by NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid. Good morning, Asma.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: OK, so we heard that Mark Carney - what he hopes to tackle in the meeting. What are you hearing from the White House about that meeting?
KHALID: Well, the White House has not yet officially announced the meeting. Though last week, when President Trump was asked by a reporter about Canada's election results, the president did allude to a meeting taking place in the next week or so, and Trump made a point to refer to Mark Carney as a, quote, "very nice gentleman." Certainly, a nicer description than the one he has used for Carney's predecessor. You know, the key thing here, of course, will be that these talks come amidst Trump's tariffs and his threats of annexing Canada, making it the 51st state, as he has said. You know, Trump has also accused Canada of taking away American business.
You might recall that shortly after he came into office, President Trump put a hefty 25% tariff on Canadian goods. He then granted relief, largely because of this already existing trade deal known as USMCA, but there's still really no clarification on how the Trump administration wants to engage with America's neighbor to the north. You know, this past week, even after Canada's election results, Trump was still complaining at a rally about the U.S., quote, "subsidizing" Canada. I will also note here, though, I mean, this is Carney's first trip here to Washington since he was elected, and he has been rather blunt in saying that Canadians elected him to stand up to Trump.
RASCOE: OK, so those tariffs and all that uncertainty around them have triggered increasing worries about a recession. What does President Trump have to say about that?
KHALID: Well, I'm going to be keenly watching NBC's "Meet The Press" today with Kristen Welker because President Trump is on there. And NBC released an excerpt of the interview in advance on Friday. And, in it, Kristen Welker asked the president about the worries that some on Wall Street have of a coming recession.
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KRISTEN WELKER: Yeah.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Many people on Wall Street say this is going to be the greatest windfall ever happened.
WELKER: And that's my question...
TRUMP: Remember this...
WELKER: ...The long term. Is it OK in the short term to have a recession?
TRUMP: Remember this - look, yeah, everything's OK.
KHALID: And so you hear the president seemed to downplay concerns about a possible recession. He went on to say that the economy is in a transition period, but that it would do, quote, "fantastically," in his view, in the long run.
RASCOE: But we've seen polls and data that show a lot of Americans don't think everything is OK, right?
KHALID: That's right. I mean, there is certainly economic anxiety. You see that in the polling. New figures from the Commerce Department last week also showed that the U.S. economy shrank during the first three months of this year. You know, broadly, I will say, President Trump believes that economists were wrong about the negative consequences of tariffs in his first term. And so he's trying to sort of cast out - I've heard this from the White House - about some of the foreboding messages from economists now. But to be clear, Trump's tariffs now, this time around, are much steeper than what he put in place in 2018.
RASCOE: OK, so kind of taking it full circle. You know, the tariffs and the trade wars are the things that people are pointing to as a possible cause of a recession and economic uncertainty. What is the status of those tariffs and trade talks?
KHALID: Yeah. So let's, I think, just remind folks for a moment that Trump put in place these sweeping tariffs on many countries throughout the globe, and then he pulled back on them. But he still has left a 10% tariff on many imports from around the globe with the goal of negotiating trade deals. Last week, different economic advisers came out and alluded to the fact that they were very close to a deal, but we still haven't seen a deal. And I will say that trade deals take a really long time to figure out in terms of the nitty-gritty details. And I think most importantly, thus far, we haven't seen any movement on those huge tariffs between China and the U.S.
RASCOE: That's NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid. Thank you for speaking with us today.
KHALID: Great to speak with you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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