Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday said it’s “no secret” U.S. President Donald Trump dislikes the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) amid growing concerns about the trade pact’s future, while assuring it will remain in place — at least in the short term.
Carney was asked about Trump’s comments Wednesday that he would prefer the continental trade deal be “terminated” rather than extended another 16 years or enter a 10-year period of annual reviews. July 1 marks the day when all three countries will have to enter formal talks on CUSMA’s future.
Speaking to reporters in Vancouver, Carney cited comments made in recent weeks by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that “the underlying structure of CUSMA” was solid and will remain in place through the negotiations.
“There’s always been the opportunity for any of the parties to cancel it with six months’ notice,” Carney said.
“It’s no secret the president in recent years has not been the biggest fan of CUSMA or other trade deals. But there are specific things that we can work together on.”
One of those is Canada’s forestry sector, Carney added, which is facing punishing tariffs and anti-dumping duties from the U.S. that current trade talks are in part focused on reducing or eliminating.
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Carney, who was appearing alongside B.C. Premier David Eby for an infrastructure funding announcement, said the federal government was working with the province on a forest product strategy for “transformation of the industry,” including prioritizing domestic supply chains for homebuilding.
Eby said the strategy and a new federal technical advisory group was working to boost non-U.S. forestry exports while pushing the Americans to reinvest in Canadian materials.
“To see the Americans increasing their imports of lumber from Russia instead of from British Columbia and Canada doesn’t make any sense to us at all,” the premier said.
“I am very hopeful that the president and his trade team respond to the engagements of Canada at the national level, to sit down and talk about this, because there is a win-win here for everybody.”
Trump said Wednesday that he may end up signing a renewal or extension of CUSMA, but insisted the U.S. would “do better as a country when we don’t have an agreement.”
“It’s not sticking around — it’ll be terminated, in other words, it expires. I prefer that,” he said.
Carney said Thursday he spoke with Trump about “some of the commercial aspects” around CUSMA among “a range of issues” discussed on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France this week.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and chief trade negotiator Janice Charette met with Greer at the summit as well, where LeBlanc said they “took stock ” of the work done since their meeting in Washington earlier this month and agreed to get in contact again soon.
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