August 21, 2025
RED FM News Desk
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand held her first official in-person meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Thursday, against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the bilateral relationship.
The two met at the U.S. State Department, briefly shaking hands in front of Canadian and American flags. Neither responded to questions from reporters.
Anand and Rubio have previously spoken by phone, including ahead of June’s G7 Summit in Kananaskis and again in August, when the State Department said discussions focused on security challenges in Haiti and the Middle East.
Trade friction remains a dominant issue. Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc visited Washington in July seeking relief from tariffs, but U.S. President Donald Trump instead raised duties on Canadian goods to 35 per cent. The White House said the move was tied to Ottawa’s “failure to cooperate in curbing the ongoing flood of fentanyl” and to Canada’s retaliatory tariffs.
While the higher duties don’t apply to goods covered under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, Canada is facing stiff tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper and automobiles. U.S. government data, however, shows only a negligible amount of fentanyl is intercepted at the northern border.
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