Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney took a hardline stance against several of President Donald Trump‘s claims during a somewhat contentious Oval Office meeting Tuesday, including Trump’s assertion that the United States doesn’t “do much business” with Canada.

Why It Matters

Tuesday was Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with Carney since the U.S. president launched his sweeping trade war targeting Canada, Mexico and nearly 200 other countries. It was also their first meeting since Carney won Canada’s federal election after running on an anti-Trump platform.

What To Know

“We don’t do much business with Canada, from our standpoint,” Trump said at the meeting. “They do a lot of business with us. We’re at like 4 percent, and usually those things don’t last very long. You know, we have great things, great product—the kind of product we sell, nobody else can sell, including military.”

Carney immediately pushed back and began by saying Canada would never accede to Trump’s repeated demands that it become the 51st state.

“Secondly,” Carney said, “we are the largest client of the United States in the totality of all the goods. So we are the largest client of the United States. We have a tremendous auto sector between the two of us, and the changes that have been made have been helpful.”

The Canadian prime minister added: “You know, 50 percent of a car that comes from Canada is American. That’s not like anywhere else in the world. And to your question about, is there one thing [that can lower the tariffs]? No, this is a bigger discussion.”

“There are much bigger forces involved and this will take some time and some discussions,” he said. “And that’s why we’re here, to have those discussions and that is represented by who’s sitting around the table.”

Trump struck a far more measured tone in his face-to-face meeting with Carney than he had in previous public statements, in which he repeatedly accused Canada of taking unfair advantage of the U.S., called for it to become the 51st state, and mocked Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, as “Governor Trudeau.”

On Tuesday, Trump congratulated Carney on his election victory, telling his Canadian counterpart: “I think Canada chose a very talented person, a very good person.”

When asked what concessions he hoped to secure from Canada, Trump responded simply: “Friendship.”

This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.