Hot mic catches Carney, Trump discussing Canada’s Chinese EV quota

A microphone at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains caught Mark Carney and Donald Trump discussing one of the most sensitive trade deals in North America: Canada’s new limit on Chinese electric vehicles. In the overheard exchange, Carney said the quota would amount to “less than three per cent of our market” and referred to “49,000 cars,” prompting Trump to reply, “That’s good. I like that.”

The moment mattered because the Carney government has just cut Canada’s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese-made EVs to 6.1 per cent while keeping an annual cap of 49,000 vehicles. China then suspended retaliatory tariffs on Canadian agricultural products, turning the policy into a broader trade bargain that links auto access with farm exports. Trump has criticized the arrangement, threatened new tariffs and said Canada should not become a “drop off port” for Chinese vehicles entering the United States.

The two leaders did not have a formal bilateral meeting scheduled at the summit, a sign that the trade friction between Ottawa and Washington remained unresolved even as Carney and Trump spoke informally at a working luncheon and while walking together before the family photo. The exchange came as Canada-U.S. trade talks were still tense and no clear decision had been made on extending the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, leaving the broader commercial relationship in flux.

The hot mic also captured the lighter side of summit diplomacy. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she had not smoked since the first of May, and Carney joked, “Do you have a patch?” Trump was overheard making a cryptic Greenland remark to European Council President António Costa, a reminder that the summit’s unscripted moments often revealed more than the staged statements.

Those slips landed against a dense first full day of G7 talks in France, where leaders focused on foreign aid reform, health policy coordination, Ukraine and stability in the Middle East. The Carney-Trump exchange stood out because it exposed how closely trade, industrial policy and geopolitics are now tied together, with China’s role in the EV market shaping not only Canada’s tariffs but also the terms of the U.S.-Canada conversation.