OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney has acknowledged publicly for the first time that the deal he’s negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump is almost certain to come with tariffs.

“There is not a lot of evidence right now” that the U.S. is offering tariff-free deals, Carney said in French on Tuesday morning on the way into his office ahead of a meeting with his Cabinet.

Before Carney’s admission, Canadian officials had consistently held out hope for a nearly tariff-free relationship as part of a new trade and security agreement.

“Canada’s objectives are pretty straightforward,” Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador in Washington and chief negotiator, told CTV News last month. “We negotiated under the [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement] a 99 percent tariff-free trading relationship with the Americans. That’s the deal that we struck. That’s the deal that we think is fair.”

The precise terms of Canada’s negotiating position are unclear, but Trump acknowledged at the G7 leaders’ summit in Alberta last month that Carney’s offer differed from the president’s pro-tariff preference.

“We’re gonna see if we can get to the bottom of it today. I’m a tariff person. I’ve always been a tariff person. It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s precise, and it just goes very quickly,” Trump said before a bilateral meeting with the Canadians.

“I think Mark has a more complex idea but it’s still very good,” he added.

Carney was elected in April after a polarized campaign dominated by Trump, tariffs and trade policy. “President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us,” the prime minister said in his election night victory speech. “That will never ever happen.”

“America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,” Carney warned more than once. “These are not idle threats.”

The prime minister has since changed his messaging, and his working relationship with the president is said to be cordial.

Still, in a letter addressed to Carney last week, Trump advised that Canadian goods imported into the U.S. could face a blanket 35 percent tariff starting next month. A White House official, granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations, told POLITICO the administration plans to impose the tariff only on goods that do not comply with the USMCA.

Canada had been preparing to double its countertariffs on U.S. metals on July 21 — to 50 percent from 25 percent — but announced last week it was pausing that plan as negotiations continue. Carney’s government had previously announced plans to drop its Digital Services Tax.

Negotiations toward an Aug. 1 deadline set by Trump “will intensify,” Carney said Tuesday.