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Carney says issues on steel, aluminum and other sectors will be rolled into the broader USMCA negotiations.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he does not expect that Canada and the U.S. will reach a near-term deal to end President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and other sectors, and that these negotiations will instead be rolled into a review of the pact that governs continental trade.
Mr. Carney also said that a list of U.S. priorities in those coming talks released this week was only “a subset of issues of a much bigger discussion,” suggesting that he expects Mr. Trump to put more demands on the table.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Thursday, before signing a deal with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to speed up approvals for infrastructure projects, Mr. Carney said he had been close to a deal with the administration in October before Mr. Trump walked away from talks.
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“It was the case that we were close to an agreement. We didn’t get that agreement. From our perspective, the terms of that agreement are still on the table,” he said. “If the U.S. wanted to sit down this weekend, we could sit down this weekend and hammer out a sectoral deal. I’m confident of that from our side.”
But he said he did not think that was likely to happen, and so instead, these issues will be discussed as part of a review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, referred to by the Americans as USMCA and Canadians as CUSMA.
“My judgment is that that is going to roll into the broader CUSMA negotiations,” he said.
The formal review isn’t scheduled until July 1.
The two countries negotiated for months over Mr. Trump’s tariffs and were close to deals on lifting at least some of the tariffs, before Mr. Trump ended talks over an Ontario government anti-tariff ad that aired on U.S. television in October. The ad campaign was later pulled at the request of Mr. Carney.
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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this week presented the administration’s priority list for USMCA talks in closed-door sessions with two congressional committees. According to a written version of his presentation subsequently published by his office, he singled out supply management and Canada’s Online Streaming Act, which allows its telecom regulator to mandate Canadian content, as the two top irritants he planned to address in negotiations.
His presentation listed several other friction points, including the Online News Act, which requires internet platforms to pay publishers for linking to or republishing their content; provincial procurement practices that favour local companies; provincial bans on U.S. liquor in retaliation against the tariffs and Alberta’s treatment of electricity from Montana.
Mr. Greer also highlighted some potential areas for co-operation, such as tightening rules of origin for industrial goods to ensure more are made in North America, creating a critical minerals marketplace for the three countries, and better aligning tariff, export and investment rules.
Notably, Mr. Greer said little on steel, autos or aluminum. Nor did he propose major protectionist demands of the kind that Mr. Trump made in previous USMCA negotiations in 2017 and 2018, such as gutting trade dispute resolution mechanisms and restricting how much U.S. procurement Canadian and Mexican companies could bid on.
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Mr. Carney, however, signalled that Mr. Greer’s demands are not likely to be the totality of what the Trump administration raises at the bargaining table.
“These are a subset of issues of a much bigger discussion,” he said.
Mr. Carney said he, Mr. Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum “set out the broad parameters” for the USMCA negotiations earlier this month when the three met at the FIFA World Cup draw in Washington.
Mr. Ford said he had “full confidence in the Prime Minister” to cut a deal with Mr. Trump. Until that happens, he said, Ontario will continue to pull American alcohol from government-owned liquor store shelves.
“When the Prime Minister and President Trump come up with a great deal for both countries, we’d be more than happy to bring in, maybe some Kentucky bourbon, but until then, we’re going to hold off,” he said.
