Canada's minister responsible for trade with the United States said on Thursday that a pledge from a Trump administration official to not challenge Canadian laws around French language and Canadian culture could provide an opening to renew negotiations.

Trade talks between the United States and Canada, its second-largest trading partner, collapsed late last week into a battle that Mark Carney compared to war, as the Trump administration announced severe tariffs and Canada retaliated with its own. Among the points that officials clashed over were Canadian rules protecting the use of French in daily life and promoting French-language movies and shows.

The minister, Dominic Le Blanc, alluded to those rules on Thursday in a comment about "discoverability," referring to Canadian laws that require online streaming services to make it easier for users to "discover" shows and movies in French. "Canada welcomes that the U.S. is now withdrawing its positions on discoverability and labeling and is confirming that measures to promote French language and Canadian culture will not be subject to future U.S. trade actions," Mr. Le Blanc said in a social media post.

His statement was a shift from the sometimes acrimonious exchange of words across the border in recent days. In a strongly worded speech on Saturday, Mr. Carney said that Canada had been "attacked" by the Trump administration's trade moves and that the two countries were now "at war."

Mr. Le Blanc appeared to be reacting to comments made by Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative, in an interview with CBC News, the Canadian public broadcaster, that aired on Wednesday. In the interview, Mr. Greer said that laws and regulations to make it easier to find French content on streaming services had been "highlighted" by the American side, but he said that they were not a make-or-break issue.