Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to hold talks in the coming days as Ottawa seeks to ease a new 35% U.S. tariff on goods outside the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, according to a senior Canadian official, CNBC reported Sunday.

Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for U.S.-Canada trade, told CBS News’ Face the Nation he was “encouraged” by ongoing discussions and believed a negotiated reduction of the tariffs remained possible. “We’re encouraged by the conversations with Secretary \[Howard] Lutnick and Ambassador \[Jamieson] Greer, but we’re not yet where we need to go to get the deal that’s in the best interest of the two economies,” LeBlanc said.

The White House linked the tariffs, announced Friday, partly to what it described as Canada’s failure to curb fentanyl smuggling, Reuters reported. Trump has accused Ottawa of not doing enough to stop illicit shipments, though Carney said Canada accounts for just 1% of U.S. fentanyl imports and is working to cut volumes further.

The latest measure marks an escalation in a months-long tariff dispute that began shortly after Trump’s return to office this year. LeBlanc said he expects Carney and Trump to speak “over the next number of days” and sees “an option of striking a deal that will bring down some of these tariffs \[and] provide greater certainty to investment.”