Prime Minister Mark Carney pushed back Thursday on the suggestion the U.S. is considering pulling out of North America’s free-trade pact.
When The Canadian Press asked the prime minister if he was open to separate bilateral trade pacts if the U.S. withdraws, Carney replied, “That’s not what they’re saying.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer floated the idea during a public talk put on by the American think-tank the Atlantic Council in Washington on Wednesday. Greer said the continental free-trade pact could be dissolved, revised or renegotiated.
“Could it be exited? Yeah, it could be exited. Could it be revised? Yes. Could it be renegotiated? Yes,” he said. “All of those things are on the table.”
Canada’s most important free trade deal, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement — often referred to as CUSMA — is set to come up for review next year.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. relations, told The Canadian Press Ottawa’s conversations with American officials indicate they are not interested in tearing up the deal.
“We believe, based on our conversations with the Americans, that for the moment that’s not the objective the Americans have in mind,” he said in a French-language interview.
But Canada’s former chief trade negotiator Steve Verheul has warned members of Parliament the U.S. will likely seek to crank up the pressure on Canada and Mexico during the review by threatening to end the agreement.
“The biggest challenge Canada and Mexico will face is to convince the U.S. of the reality that extending the agreement is the most effective way to promote economic growth and prosperity in all three countries,” Verheul told a House of Commons committee on Oct. 30.
“To put further pressure on Canada and Mexico, the U.S. is unlikely to take a position that supports an extension of the agreement at this time. They’re going to try to use that as leverage.”
At the Dec. 4 Grow Canada Conference in Calgary, Verheul said Canada may see Trump and his team continue to push next year for the sort of informal deals they’ve reached with the EU, Japan and South Korea as the review is being conducted.
“He seems to like that approach, and that might be something we’ll have to face,” Verheul said during a panel talk.
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Canada has been pushing to end heavy tariffs levied by the Trump administration on Canada’s steel, aluminum, auto and forestry sectors.
In an interview with The Canadian Press this week, U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said U.S. trade negotiators were “very disappointed” when progress was scuttled this fall after Ontario launched an anti-tariff ad blitz on American networks that annoyed Trump.
“They were in the meeting with the prime minister, they were in the meeting with the president, where … as the meeting was wrapping up, the prime minister and the president were telling their teams, OK, we’ve got a framework here, wrap it up, get it done. And then we ran into some unfortunate events that significantly changed the dynamics,” Hoekstra said, insisting the ads — which featured former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs — were directly responsible for blowing up the talks.
LeBlanc believes U.S. will keep CUSMA trade deal with Canada, Mexico
LeBlanc, the MP for the New Brunswick riding of Beauséjour, said the Mexicans have a similar read of the situation that the United States will review CUSMA rather than rip it up.
“It’s very encouraging,” said LeBlanc, whose past year has included numerous trips to Washington to negotiate with the U.S. in an effort to defuse the trade war initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump.
LeBlanc said the United States “calmly” launched its consultations for the review of CUSMA and the American trade ambassador, Greer, said the U.S. would “follow a fairly traditional process for these kinds of agreements.”
Asked if he felt discouraged or fed up at times with the level of progress in trade talks, LeBlanc said frustration is understandable.
“I understand businesspeople and workers in several sectors where the headwinds are much stronger who are saying, ‘there hasn’t been any progress, or there hasn’t been any visible advancement’,” LeBlanc said.
“We completely share that frustration.”
Despite this, the minister is optimistic about the review of CUSMA, scheduled for 2026, and potential agreements to reduce sectoral tariffs targeting steel, aluminum and lumber industries.
“Our responsibility is to try to find the best solution, the workaround… and how to navigate this, but calmly, without emotion, without panic,” he added.
At the beginning of 2025, Trump carried through on his threat to impose tariffs on Canada and numerous other countries. Throughout the year, Ottawa managed to secure some reprieve and exemptions, but also saw the scope of several tariffs worsen.
Throughout the tariff saga, LeBlanc travelled to the United States to attempt to defuse the situation, often accompanied by Michael Sabia, the clerk of the privy council, and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s chief of staff Marc-André Blanchard.
Discussions with the Trump administration on trade remain suspended.
While LeBlanc described his relationship with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as friendly, talks have been at a standstill since October after Trump called off trade talks in response to an ad from the Ontario government about the negative impacts of tariffs.
“We were certainly disappointed because we felt we were moving into a level of detail that was previously absent,” LeBlanc said.
More recently, LeBlanc visited Mexico, which is Canada’s third-largest trading partner. Heading into the new year, LeBlanc said there is certainly more energy and focus on the Canada-Mexico relationship than at the start of 2025.
“I think we, as a country, haven’t sufficiently appreciated the extraordinary potential with Mexico in terms of bilateral economic relations,” LeBlanc said.
But he doesn’t believe the relationship with Mexico has been ignored.
“I don’t know if I would have used the word ‘neglected’,” LeBlanc said. “Perhaps we haven’t taken the time or the energy to engage with our Mexican counterparts until Mr. Carney went there in September.”
Carney travelled to Mexico City in early September to meet with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
LeBlanc visited Mexico just last week to continue discussions. Next February, LeBlanc will lead a bilateral trade mission to that country, which is expected to be the biggest bilateral trade mission ever in terms of participants.
“It’s a growing economy. It’s an increasingly industrialized economy,” LeBlanc said. “We also face the same challenges in the review of CUSMA.”
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