Prime Minister Mark Carney's decision to drop most Canadian counter-tariffs on U.S. goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), while long overdue, is the right one.

Counter-tariffs have been ineffective and increased the cost of living for Canadians.

In fact, shortly after becoming PM, Carney abandoned his initial support of dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. during the Liberal leadership race, calling it unrealistic because the American economy is 10 times the size of Canada's.

While Carney continued his "elbows up" political rhetoric about U.S.-Canada trade relations during the election, all the way back in April he dropped some retaliatory tariffs against U.S. goods because they were hurting Canadian businesses reliant on U.S. imports.

On Friday, he announced Canada will match the U.S. commitment to exempt CUSMA compliant goods from tariffs effective Sept. 1, although sectoral counter-tariffs on aluminum, steel and autos will remain.

What rings hollow is Carney's boast Friday that "Canada currently has the best trade deal with the United States."

He said compared to a global U.S. tariff rate of almost 16%, "the actual U.S. average tariff rate on Canadian goods is 5.6% and remains the lowest among all its trading partners (with) more than 85% of Canada-U.S. trade ... tariff-free."

But that's because of CUSMA, which Carney had nothing to do with and is up for renegotiation next year.

So far, Carney has received little to nothing for concessions he has already made to U.S. President Donald Trump.

These include strengthening Canada's border security, increasing our financial commitment to NATO, scrapping the digital services tax and eliminating Canadian counter-tariffs on U.S. imports - twice.

Because of Carney's misleading "elbows up" election rhetoric, two out of three Canadians still favour taking a hard line approach to dealing with the U.S. on trade, as opposed to the softer one Carney has actually pursued, according to a recent Angus Reid Institute survey.

In reaction to Carney's announcement Friday, Trump praised the PM, saying, "We want to be very good to Canada. I like Carney a lot. I think he's a very good person."

Carney says dropping the counter-tariffs puts Canada in a better position to negotiate a new deal on trade.