US - Canada trade: Deal or No Deal?

**Luke Wilson** (0:01)
Businesses are left in limbo as new tariffs on Canada are delayed. It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service. I'm Luke Wilson. The world's biggest humanoid robot maker has a blockbuster debut on the Shanghai stock market, and some businesses in the UK ban smart glasses over privacy concerns.
The US has suspended the prospect of 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods just hours before they were due to come into effect. President Trump said a deal had been reached and the measures would be paused for three days. But Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said there was still important work to be done. Colin Robertson is a former Canadian diplomat and member of the North America Free Trade Agreement negotiation team.

**Colin Robertson** (0:50)
I think it's highly unlikely that you'd see a comprehensive deal reached in the next three days. There's just too many pieces in play.
And the kind of deal that Mr. Carney has talked about would also go into issues of security and defense, critical minerals, supply chains. This will take more than three days to sort out. With any agreement I've participated in, we have often reached a tentative deal, but then it takes you several months to put all the details in play, and that often involves further negotiation.

**Luke Wilson** (1:21)
Where does this leave the businesses who could be affected? Jean-Philippe Robert is president of Quartzco, an outdoor wear brand based in Montreal.

**Jean-Philippe Robert** (1:29)
A 50% tariff is effectively an embargo on our product entering the US. You know, we sell a product that's resold at retail, and a 50% increase in price is almost impossible.

**Luke Wilson** (1:43)
And how important is the US market to you as a company?

**Jean-Philippe Robert** (1:47)
It represents about 15% of our total sale. So we are diversified geographically, we're stronger in Canada, but 15% is still very important, it makes a difference between a good and a bad year.

**Luke Wilson** (2:01)
How does it feel for you trying to run a business while all this is happening around you?

**Jean-Philippe Robert** (2:06)
The past 18 months we've had to be very flexible and adapt.
The past months also taught us to remain, you know, not to panic too fast, because things tend to change quite fast. But definitely a tough environment to navigate, it's hard to plan investment, it's really hard to just manage the business with the US under these conditions. So we hope that in two days from now, we have a long-term solution.

**Luke Wilson** (2:40)
And what do your customers make of what's going on, even before there might be a situation where you have to put costs on for them?

**Jean-Philippe Robert** (2:48)
The American customer doesn't really understand why they have to pay higher on these articles. We try to have the conversations with our wholesale partners.
We also have a lot of questions from our e-com customers. They just don't get it.

**Luke Wilson** (3:05)
Jean-Philippe Robert from the Canadian brand Quartz Co. Russ Mould is investment director at AJ Bell. And Russ, when President Trump announced this deal on Truth Social, he also said it could allow the revival of the Keystone XL pipeline.

**Russ Mould** (3:19)
This project dates back to 2008, and it's designed to ship Canadian crude oil to America for refining. The Biden administration cancelled it for many different reasons. President Trump now thinking of bringing it back, possibly as a bargaining tool with the Canadians, but also an awareness of the importance of energy security given the war in the Middle East, and also how oil or gasoline prices are going up ahead of the midterm elections, and they're not popular with voters at all in America.

**Luke Wilson** (3:43)
And here in the UK, Russ, we've seen inflation jump to its highest level for four months.

**Russ Mould** (3:48)
Inflation has now exceeded the Bank of England's 2% target every month but two since May 2021, so that's not great, and services are the source of the accelerating prices. Energy again, but also broadband and rent, slow growth, sticky prices. That's almost stagflation. The Bank of England would probably like to cut interest rates to help growth, but at many it has raised them to dampen down inflation. That's a very difficult choice.

**Luke Wilson** (4:10)
Russ Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell, thank you.
The world's biggest humanoid robot manufacturer, Unitree Robotics, has seen its share price soar more than 500% on its stock market debut in Shanghai. The Chinese company has drawn global attention for its creations, with its latest supposedly able to run faster than the former Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. It comes as the World Robot Conference is being held in the Chinese capital of Beijing. The BBC's Maura Fogarty has more.