Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and his U.S. counterpart Jamieson Greer are set to meet in Washington on Friday morning, with less than 24 hours to finalize a deal. Trump’s 50 per cent tariff deadline is set to expire at midnight Saturday. On Thursday, LeBlanc told reporters in Washington that they are “very close” to an agreement, following an over three-hour long meeting with Greer. Canadians have remained tight-lipped about the details of the deal. LeBlanc said Wednesday that the country’s dairy supply management system will remain protected. Multiple sources tell CTV News that there will be reductions in aluminum, steel and auto tariffs, but questions still linger on the outcome of softwood lumber and agriculture. All premiers say they will comply with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s request to bring U.S. booze back to shelves, but experts and residents say there will still be opposition to buying it. Follow along for key information: The ‘best deal’ for autos Canada is in a position to get “the best deal” for its auto industry compared to the rest of the world, according to an industry representative. Huw Williams, spokesperson for the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, told CTV News Channel on Thursday that there is opportunity to get “a good short term deal that hopefully rolls into the CUSMA negotiations in the future.” Canada is the biggest customer of U.S.-made vehicles, he said. “It doesn’t do well to attack your customer.” Williams said they have asked their U.S. counterparts to communicate that the tariffs hurt the economy on both sides. Devika Desai, CTVNews.ca journalist TSX shows gains The S&P/TSX composite was up nearly a point (36,694, up 0.88 per cent) in Friday morning trading. Energy and mining stocks showed the largest gains. Luca Caruso-Moro, CTVNews.ca journalist Anand talks Arctic, NATO with Rubio While Canadian and U.S. negotiators hammer out the details of a deal, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand met with her American counterpart, Marco Rubio, for security talks today. A readout from Anand’s office reports the two discussed “transnational fraudulent activity including scam centres,” Arctic foreign policy and NATO investments. “Minister Anand highlighted that Canada will continue to engage constructively with the United States on trade and to strengthen our economic relationship,” the statement added. Canada recently committed to spend five per cent of its GDP on defence by 2035. U.S. President Donald Trump has long pushed allied countries to increase their military investments. Anand and Rubio will speak again in September at the United Nations. Luca Caruso-Moro, CTVNews.ca journalist PM tried to ‘out-tough’ Trump: Vance U.S. Vice-President JD Vance said Carney tried to “out-tough” Trump in trade negotiations and credited Conservative MP Jamil Jivani as an “effective advocate” in the deal talks. In audio from a Wednesday fundraiser in Southampton, N.Y., which was provided to The Canadian Press by a source who attended the private function, Vance said Carney is a “very sweet guy” and he gets along with him quite well. But Carney “comes in and puffs his chest out and says, ‘I’m going to, like, out-tough Donald Trump,’” he added. “It’s hilarious because Carney presents this as some victory for Canada when fundamentally, like, they climb down on a lot of issues,” Vance told the room. “But the quiet sort of behind-the-scenes story is that this, like, random MP who has a good relationship with us has been a pretty effective advocate,” he said about Jivani. Vance added there’s “this guy Pierre Poilievre, who is the leader of the Conservatives in Canada,” adding he is a “non-entity” in negotiations. The White House and the vice-president’s office have not yet responded to a request for comment. The Canadian Press. Read the full story here. Vance’s comments are ‘childish,’ says ex-ambassador Vance’s comments about Carney were “childish” and “flippant,” according to Gordon D. Giffen, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Canada from 1997 to 2001. “The vice-president was out of line,” he told CTV News Channel from Brevard, N.C. Asked what Canada should do next if a deal isn’t reached, Giffen said he doesn’t think the U.S. will follow through with imposing the 50 per cent tariffs as the president promised. He called the new, 50 per cent tariffs “unsound, bad policy,” and predicted their imposition would beget further Canadian retaliation. Luca Caruso-Moro, CTVNews.ca journalist Winery owner unconcerned about U.S. booze return An Ontario winery owner says he isn’t worried about a drop in sales should U.S. booze return to store shelves. Donald Ziraldo, who is the founding chairman of the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), told CTV Your Morning on Friday that provincial bans have boosted sales at local wineries by 25 per cent to 100 per cent. “People became more aware ... that the Niagara Canadian wines, in particular, are as good as the California, and probably a little bit less expensive,” he said. Prime Minister Mark Carney asked premiers this week to lift their respective bans, which have been in place since February 2025. All have said they will comply. The VQA is Canada’s Canada’s official regulatory and appellation of origin system for high-quality wines. A VQA label guarantees that a wine is made entirely from locally grown grapes in Ontario or B.C. and meets strict production and labeling standards. Ziraldo added that he hopes Quebec and the Maritime provinces will join the alliance to let consumers know which wines are “100 per cent grown in Canada.” Devika Desai, CTVNews.ca journalist LeBlanc on trade deal: ‘We’re very close’ Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc shared an update following a more than three-hour meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington on Thursday, saying they are “very close” to an agreement. “We continue to make progress, and we’re going to stay here and do the work that’s necessary until we get to that point,” LeBlanc said to reporters, while also describing the meeting as “long” and “detailed.” Chief Trade Negotiator Janice Charette, Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Mark Wiseman and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Chief of Staff Marc-André Blanchard were also involved in the meeting. Stephanie Ha, bureau manager, Ottawa News Bureau All provinces agreed to restock U.S. liquor: N.L. premier Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham says Canada’s premiers have agreed to return U.S. alcohol to store shelves as part of the tentative trade deal with the U.S. He said the prime minister is confident an agreement will be reached and that “as part of this agreement, he asked all of the provinces, as a sign of good faith, ‘would we put U.S. liquor back on our shelves,’ and we all agreed.” Several of the premiers have not commented publicly on the issue. U.S. alcohol products remain off the shelves in every province except Alberta and Saskatchewan. Tiffany Hendsbee, CTV News supervising multiplatform writer
