OTTAWA — President Donald Trump’s envoy to Canada says some level of American tariffs on Canadian products is the new normal, holding out only slim hope that direct talks between Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney could see them lifted entirely.

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said in an interview with the Star that the president and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are deep into private discussions with Canada to establish what Carney calls a new economic and security relationship, and said Trump and Lutnick indicated “tariffs are a part of the framework moving forward.”

The American president could change tariff levels “at any time for any country that they are negotiating with,” Hoekstra said. Depending on how discussions — that Premier Doug Ford described Thursday as “rig

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