Prime Minister Mark Carney met privately Friday with U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in Washington, D.C., with no staff in the room.
The meeting, which happened at the Kennedy Center following the 2026 FIFA World Cup Draw, lasted about 45 minutes.
Sheinbaum called the meeting “excellent” in a Spanish-language social media post, and said the trio “agreed to continue working together on trade issues with our teams.”
They also discussed the “great opportunity” of hosting the World Cup in their countries and “the good relationship we have,” she added.
Trump said before the draw that the three leaders would discuss trade in the meeting, their first time together ahead of next year’s mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
“We’re getting along very well. I don’t know, I think we have a meeting set up for some time after the event,” Trump told reporters on the red carpet while entering the event.
“Yeah, we’re going to discuss trade,” Trump added in response to a reporter’s question.
Carney landed in Washington, D.C., late Friday morning to participate in the FIFA Men’s World Cup draw ceremony. He did not mention the upcoming meeting with Trump and Sheinbaum when speaking briefly with reporters on the red carpet.
Carney and Trump could be seen chatting in their private box moments before the draw began. The two men and Sheinbaum sat together throughout the event, and drew ballots for their respective countries during the ceremony.
Supermodel Heidi Klum and comedian Kevin Hart kicked off the draw ceremony, which decided the 104 World Cup matchups to be played across the continent next summer.
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Canada will play host to 13 games, marking the first time the prestigious global soccer tournament is played on Canadian soil.
The tournament will overlap with the CUSMA review that’s expected to begin in July.
While Trump’s tariffs have thrown North American trade policy into uncertainty, the exemption handed out to Canada and Mexico on CUSMA-compliant goods has cushioned both nations against the worst impacts.
However, Trump has signalled recently that he is open to letting the deal expire.
The deal, which he was instrumental in negotiating in 2018 and is referred to as CUSMA in Canada and USMCA in the United States, is up for review next year.
“It expires in about a year, and we’ll either let it expire, or we’ll maybe work out another deal with Mexico and Canada,” Trump told reporters in the White House on Wednesday, when asked about the future of the deal.
Canada and Mexico had “taken advantage” of the U.S., Trump said.
“Mexico and Canada have taken advantage of the United States. It’s like just about every other country, in all fairness, it’s not them. I’m not blaming them. But every country because we had stupid people running our country,” Trump said.
The deal was signed during Trump’s first term in office and in 2020. After signing the deal, he praised the trade agreement.
“It’s the best agreement we’ve ever made,” Trump had said at the time.
In October, Trump cut off all trade talks with Canada over what he called an “egregious” television ad featuring former U.S. president Ronald Reagan paid for and run by the Ontario government on American television networks.
Friday’s meeting marked the first official sit-down between Carney and Trump since negotiations were suspended. The two spoke briefly at a group dinner during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea last month, where Carney apologized for the ad, but trade issues were not otherwise discussed.
Trump told reporters afterward that he would not resume trade negotiations despite Carney’s apology.
U.S. officials have accused Canada of being “difficult” during the talks.
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