Trump says the U.S. and Canada have the “concept” of a deal
President Trump said Sunday that the U.S. and Canada have the “concept” of a new trade deal after he spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney, but he gave no terms. The two countries have spent months in a tariff dispute, and no tariff changes or timeline have been announced. Read at AP News →
The Reciprocity Treaty
What happened then
In 1854, Lord Elgin, the governor general of the British North American colonies, and U.S. Secretary of State William Marcy signed a treaty that removed tariffs on natural products such as grain, timber, coal and fish. It also opened coastal fisheries and gave each side navigation rights on the other's lakes and rivers.
What caused it
Britain had repealed its Corn Laws in 1846, ending the trade preferences its colonies relied on. The colonies needed the American market, and the United States wanted access to the Atlantic fisheries.
How it was resolved
Trade across the border grew sharply. But during the Civil War, Northern anger at British sympathy for the Confederacy, the 1864 Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vermont, launched from Canada, and rising protectionism led Washington to give notice in 1865. The treaty ended in March 1866.
How it turned out
Losing the American market was one reason the colonies united as the Dominion of Canada in 1867. Free trade with the U.S. stayed a live question for a century: when Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals ran on a new reciprocity agreement in 1911, they lost the election.
Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia: Reciprocity · Wikipedia: Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty
Further reading: Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies by John Herd Thompson and Stephen J. Randall