Canada to drop many of its retaliatory tariffs on the US

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday that his country will drop some of its billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs on US goods, though it will keep levies on autos, steel and aluminium.

It comes a day after he and President Donald Trump spoke over the phone for the first time since the two countries missed a self-imposed deadline to reach a trade agreement.

Canada had placed a 25% levy on about C$30bn (£16bn; $21.7bn) worth of US goods on an array of products, including orange juice and washing machines.

The tax hike was in retaliation to the US tariffs on Canada, which as of August are valued at 35% on all goods not compliant with the countries' existing free trade deal.

Carney said Canada will now "match the US" by dropping its tariffs on goods compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA). He said that would "re-establish free trade for the vast majority" of goods that move between the two countries.

The decision will go into effect on 1 September, Carney said.

In a statement to the BBC's US news partner CBS, the White House said it welcomes Canada's move, adding that it is "long overdue."

"We look forward to continuing our discussions with Canada on the Administration's trade and national security concerns," the White House added.

Polling shows the majority of Canadians support retaliatory tariffs on the US.

Carney, who was elected in an April general election, campaigned on an aggressive "elbows up" approach to negotiating with Trump, referencing a popular ice hockey term.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has launched a global trade war, imposing tariffs or raising them on goods from around the world, and threatening to go higher as he works to negotiate trade deals he sees as favorable to the US.