By Sumayya

When asked about the progress toward a deal with Mexico, U.S. President Donald Trump said during a quick meeting with reporters in Washington that his administration is “very close” to a “very good” deal.

“The same thing with Canada. Canada’s working very hard to make a deal with us. And I hate to say this, but we have all the cards,” Trump said.

During an overnight press conference in Istanbul—which happened hours before Trump made his comments—Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada was “continuing to engage with the U.S. government.”

“We continue to be ready to sit down in good faith to negotiate a trade deal that is in both of our interests. Of course, we’re looking for the interests of Canadians, we don’t care about the timing of that,” Carney said.

“We could sign it [a deal] this afternoon if the U.S. were there. If it has to be months from now or longer than that, or another administration before a proper deal comes into place, we would do that,” the prime minister told reporters.

When pressed by reporters on how much the timing matters, Carney explained that Canada would “drop everything” if the Americans were ready to negotiate in good faith. However, he added that the chance of that happening before the midterm elections is “up to the United States, they’re a little hard to predict.”