The Big Story 

In his first meeting with Mark Carney since the Canadian prime minister’s election last month, Trump said the U.S. faced no urgency to negotiate and would keep tariffs in place.

© The Associated Press

“No,” he said when asked if Carney can say anything to lift the tariffs on Canada. “That’s the way it is.”

The Trump administration has imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, though certain imports covered under the USMCA signed in 2020 are exempt. 

At the same time, the administration has said it is negotiating with other countries after the White House levied “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of other trading partners, including allies like India, South Korea, Japan and the European Union.

“We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now, if we wanted,” Trump said.

The president described his approach as “flexible” and not “chaotic,” adding that the administration will adjust tariffs on trading partners if they’re not agreed to.

“One day we’ll come, and we’ll give you 100 deals, and they don’t have to sign,” Trump said. “We will sign some deals, but much bigger than that is we’re going to put down the price that people will have to pay to shop in the United States. Think of us as a super luxury store, a store that has the goods.”

The Hill’s Brett Samuels and Alex Gangitano have more here.

Welcome to The Hill’s Business & Economy newsletter, I’m Aris Folley — covering the intersection of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Essential Reads 

Key business and economic news with implications this week and beyond:

Top Trump officials to meet in Switzerland with Chinese counterparts on trade

GOP divided over Trump budget’s treatment of Pentagon

Crypto industry urges Senate to move forward with floor debate on stablecoin bill

US trade deficit expands in first quarter

Tax Watch 

Welcome to Tax Watch, a new feature in The Hill’s Business & Economy newsletter focused on the fight over tax reform and the push to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts this year.

Trump puts IRS in middle of fight with Harvard

President Trump doesn’t have the legal authority to nix Harvard University’s tax-exempt status on his own. But will that stop him?  

Trump, who has shown a willingness to test the boundaries of the law as he seeks to hurt colleges financially, is at war with Harvard, locked in a lawsuit while he goes after its research funding, international students and, perhaps most dangerously for the school, its tax exemption. 

The IRS is meant to be a politically independent agency, and the university says the administration has “no legal basis” for its actions.

Experts say taking away Harvard’s tax-exempt status is nearly impossible and that Trump’s comments have already waded into illegal territory.

“My concern is less substantive, because the administration isn’t going to win this, even if the IRS follows their direction, unless there is some secret knowledge they have about Harvard. And there’s not,” said Samuel Brunson, the associate dean for academic affairs at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. 

— Lexi Lonas Cochran has more here.

The Ticker 

Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:

In Other News 

Branch out with more stories from the day:

Controllers briefly lost contact with Newark planes before wider flight disruptions

The long flight delays and cancellations plaguing Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey …

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