OTTAWA, May 19, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Canada has temporarily paused some counter tariffs against the United States, but Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on Sunday pushed back against claims they have all been quietly lifted.

This came as Prime Minister Mark Carney and US Vice President JD Vance discussed trade in Rome after they attended the inauguration mass at the Vatican for Pope Leo XIV.

According to a readout from Carney's office, they spoke about "immediate trade pressures and the need to build a new economic and security relationship."

Vance in a brief statement called it "a casual meeting" about their two nations' shared interests and goals, "including fair trade policies."

Carney, who won Canada's April 28 election on a pledge to stand up to US President Donald Trump, had slapped counter tariffs on billions of dollars of imports from the United States in response to US tariffs on Canadian goods.

During the election campaign, automakers were offered a reprieve, provided they maintained production and investment in Canada.

This was outlined on May 7 in the Canada Gazette, the government's official newspaper, along with a pause on tariffs on products used in food and beverage processing and packaging, health, manufacturing, national security and public safety.

The moves went mostly unnoticed until Oxford Economics said in a report this week that the exemptions covered so many categories of products that the tariffs rate against the United States was effectively dropped to "nearly zero."

Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre pounced on the claim, cited in the media, to accuse Carney of having "quietly dropped retaliatory tariffs to 'nearly zero' without telling anyone."

Champagne called those assertions "falsehoods."

"To retaliate against US tariffs, Canada launched largest-ever response -- including $60B of tariffs on end-use goods. 70% of those tariffs are still in place," he said on X.

Canada's counter tariffs, his office told AFP, were "calibrated to respond to the US while limiting economic harm to Canada."

Tariff relief was provided for six months to give some Canadian companies "more time to adjust their supply chains and become less dependent on US suppliers," Champagne spokesperson Audrey Milette said.

Canada continues to charge tariffs on roughly Can$43 billion (US$31 billion) of US goods, she added.

The nation of 41 million people sends three-quarters of its exports to the United States, and the latest jobs report shows tariffs imposed by Trump are already damaging the Canadian economy.

The US president has slapped general tariffs of 25 percent on Canada as well as sector-specific levies on autos, steel and aluminum, but he has suspended some of them pending negotiations.