Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday that talks with the Trump administration to renew CUSMA could take longer than anticipated as Canada pushes for what it calls a mutually beneficial agreement.
Carney also vowed that the Americans alone will not dictate the terms of whatever deal is struck, insisting this process is a negotiation that will have to result in some U.S. concessions to Canada before Ottawa and the provinces make their own compromises and agree to renew the trilateral trade agreement for another 16 years.
The U.S. has maintained that renewing CUSMA is a separate and distinct issue from the punishing Section 232 tariffs that Trump has levied on Canadian goods like steel, aluminum, lumber and autos.
Canadian negotiators don’t see it that way.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc has said Canada doesn’t want a “one-off” deal on CUSMA while industries hit hard by Trump’s tariffs are left for another negotiation.
That’s a message Carney himself relayed when asked Wednesday about the U.S. trying to fence off the sectoral tariffs from the CUSMA negotiations. He said there needs to be a “comprehensive approach.”
“We will sit down and work through those issues with the broader approach in the negotiation. We’ve made some counter-proposals, which they’re aware of, and the time will come to really roll up our sleeves,” he said.
“It’s not a case of the United States dictates the terms. We have a negotiation. We can come to a mutually successful outcome. It will take some time.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney, when asked Wednesday whether Canada should make more concessions ahead of the review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, said no — adding that he thinks negotiations can arrive at a ‘mutually successful’ outcome. Radio-Canada reported the U.S. administration is asking Canada for what amounts to an ‘entry fee’ before starting formal trade talks, according to four sources.
Both sides have now publicly conceded that the review process is unlikely to wrap up by July 1, which the text of the original CUSMA stipulates as a deadline of sorts.
Still, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Congress on Wednesday that the administration is keen to preserve at least some aspects of CUSMA.
He told U.S. lawmakers that the deal has worked well for American workers, businesses and farmers in some instances — delivering the clearest signal yet that the U.S. is leaning toward a CUSMA renewal rather than ripping it up entirely.
“Our goal with all of this is to make sure that we maintain market access into these countries,” Greer said of Canada and Mexico, under questioning at the Ways and Means Committee.
“I don’t think we’re in a position to rubber stamp the deal. We now have six years of data and we see problems. We also see good areas.”
Canada’s concessions
Regarding the “problems” Greer mentioned, Canada has already made concessions to the Trump administration and received nothing in return. The Liberal government agreed to drop its digital services tax on tech giants, and removed or did not proceed with some retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.
Canadian officials maintain those choices brought the two sides close to a deal on relief last fall, but Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Ronald Reagan ad pillorying tariffs scuttled any progress when it angered Trump.
While the Americans have given up nothing so far, they are still demanding more from Canada.
In a report to Congress in December, Greer laid out what more he wants Canada to do: drop the Online Streaming Act, which brought online platforms like Netflix, Spotify and YouTube under Canadian broadcasting rules, and make changes to the supply-managed dairy sector.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. is running out of patience in asking Canada to remove its provinces’ restrictions on sales of American alcohol. ‘My sense is there may have to be an enforcement action to deal with this issue on wine and spirits in Canada,’ Greer said.
Greer is also seized with the provincial boycotts on U.S. beer, wine and spirits — a blockade that has been highly effective and cost American liquor giants billions of dollars in lost revenue. He is demanding they be lifted.
Other irritants include provincial procurement policies and what the Americans claim is excessive customs paperwork.
Since then, Greer has raised some other issues in his recent National Trade Estimate Report, like Canada’s supposedly lax approach to imports from countries with forced labour.
Greer said if Canada makes some changes to its trade policies, “I hope we can get over the hump on some of these things to have significant talks.”
But LeBlanc said Wednesday that Canada has no interest in caving on these issues until the Americans drop or rework Section 232 tariffs.
“We have said to them, you know what, if you want the premier of Ontario or the premier of Quebec or the premier of British Columbia to change those policies, you have to give them some relief or some path to a better outcome,” LeBlanc said at a conference in Toronto.
“We’ve said to them very firmly, the Government of Canada is not going to ask the provinces to do this unless you put them in a better position economically than they’re in now.”
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While LeBlanc said there’s a chance the two sides can “make progress on their list,” Canada won’t act until there’s some movement on this country’s priorities.
“The most important one remains those sectoral tariffs,” he said. But he also identified “red lines” that are non-negotiable, such as dismantling supply management or dropping cultural and French-language protections.
Trump’s ‘not gonna go back’ on tariffs
Greer’s own comments before Congress on Wednesday signalled that the fight over tariffs could be protracted because Trump is wedded to his scheme.
“The president’s not gonna go back to the old situation where we had no tariffs and we just let foreign goods made by foreign workers come in without any fee,” Greer said.
Evidence suggests Trump’s tariffs have actually hurt manufacturing interests in the U.S. — and cost tens of thousands of lost jobs in the sector, including automotive jobs.
But Greer said the administration forced Chrysler’s parent company Stellantis to move a production line from Brampton, Ont., to the U.S., and that’s a sign to them that the policy is working.
“We’re seeing the jobs come back again,” he said. “We want to make sure that we have those jobs in production right here in America.”
Greer said that while Canada is looking to build more trading relationships with international partners — a possible reference to the Chinese EV deal Carney cut earlier this year — the U.S. is trying to “correct for the problems of globalization.”
“Those are two models that don’t fit together very well,” Greer said.
Trump’s top trade official said that if Canada continues down that path, the U.S. will need to take another look at country of origin rules to ensure the U.S. is not “disadvantaged.”
