The carmaker reported communicating with Patrick Halley, assistant deputy minister of international trade and finance, in March to discuss international trade agreements and “fairness and access to markets for [the] automotive industry.”

The communication took place shortly before Trump’s first round of tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum were set to take effect. At the end of March, Trump dealt another blow to Canada’s auto industry when he applied a 25 per cent tariff on all foreign-made vehicles entering the U.S. That was before he announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on all of the U.S.’s international trading partners on April 2. A week later, he backed down, with a 90-day pause in response to market freefall and retaliation from the tariffed countries. But the levies on foreign-made cars, steel and aluminum were left in place.