US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick accused Canada of disrupting trade negotiations by putting forward new demands at the last minute, and said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had political motives to stifle an agreement that was close to being reached. Lutnick said on Thursday that the reason Carney aborted the agreement was to consolidate political support before the preliminary vote in the Alberta independence referendum and the Quebec elections in October. “We're just being used by them, aren't we? That's why the negotiations are over. It's not because of numbers. The numbers were ideal. We shook hands and reached an excellent agreement,” Lutnick told reporters in Washington.

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick accused Canada of disrupting trade negotiations by putting forward new demands at the last minute, and said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had political motives to stifle an agreement that was close to being reached. Lutnick said on Thursday that the reason Carney aborted the agreement was to consolidate political support before the preliminary vote in the Alberta independence referendum and the Quebec elections in October. “We're just being used by them, aren't we? That's why the negotiations are over. It's not because of numbers. The numbers were ideal. We shook hands and reached an excellent agreement,” Lutnick told reporters in Washington.