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Canada has given the U.S. and Mexico official notice that it wants the free trade deal between the three countries to be renewed.
In a letter to his American and Mexican counterparts, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the country is seeking renewal of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) when it comes up for review on July 1.
LeBlanc is in Washington Tuesday for a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, a member of U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet.
High on the agenda for Canada in the CUSMA talks is getting relief from Trump’s tariffs, which Prime Minister Mark Carney has characterized as a violation of the trade agreement.
Greer has repeatedly said — including just last week — that tariffs are a new reality that Canada is going to have to live with.
All the signals from the White House over the past year and a half indicate that the Trump administration does not want a straightforward renewal of CUSMA and instead wants significant changes to its terms, including on automotive exports and access to Canada’s dairy market.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, is in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for talks with his U.S. counterpart. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
In the letter, LeBlanc calls CUSMA “highly beneficial to each of our countries and to the integrated North American economy,” but goes on to acknowledge that the other countries may want to propose “improvements.”
The Trump administration wants the agreement amended to require that a minimum of 50 per cent of vehicle content must be made in the U.S. to qualify for tariff-free access to the American market, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
LeBlanc’s meeting with Greer on Tuesday is only the second time the pair have met face to face since October, when Trump scrapped talks with Canada, ostensibly over an anti-tariff TV advertisement by the Ontario government.
Meanwhile, the U.S. held two days of formal bilateral talks on CUSMA with Mexico last week and has scheduled two further rounds of negotiations in June and July.
U.S. has more issues with Mexico than Canada: Carney
Carney is downplaying the significance of Mexico being ahead of Canada in its talks with the U.S. on the trade deal.
He told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday that the U.S. has almost 60 issues with Mexico related to CUSMA, roughly double the number it has with Canada.
Carney said the U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, automobiles and forest products are a fundamental issue between the two countries.
“We’re looking to determine whether there’s a possibility of a new partnership there,” Carney said, echoing his comments to a business audience in New York last week.
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra posted this to X on Tuesday. (@USAmbCanada/X)
Trump, who has rarely mentioned Canada over the past few months, trolled the country on social media Monday night. “51st State!” Trump wrote in a post citing a news article about the Canadian economy hitting a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.
The U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, posted a screenshot of Trump’s “51st State!” post to X on Tuesday.
CUSMA covers roughly $1.3 trillion in annual Canada-U.S. trade in goods and services and currently shields a large swath of Canadian exports from Trump’s tariffs.
Under the text of the agreement, the three countries must state by July 1 — six years after the deal took effect — whether they want to renew it or renegotiate it.
Whatever happens on July 1, CUSMA is slated to remain in effect until 2036. However, any country can withdraw from it at any time with six months’ notice.
WATCH | What to watch for in talks on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal:
What’s at stake for upcoming CUSMA negotiations
The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement is up for review on July 1. It’s the free trade deal that impacts more than $1 trillion of the Canadian economy each year. Trump has previously threatened to abandon the agreement, but some trade experts are calling his bluff. Here’s everything you need to know about the agreement, and what’s at stake.
