Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier today that the Trump administration has made clear it does not want to alter the fundamental structure of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a position that is shaping how trade negotiations between the three countries are unfolding.
Speaking to reporters from Ireland ahead of the Group of Seven summit in France, Carney explained that the bilateral talks underway among the three parties are deliberately narrow in scope. Any sweeping amendments to USMCA would require Congressional approval, so none of the parties is seeking to touch the deal’s core architecture.
“The US has been clear that they do not want to go to Congress to change the fundamental architecture,” Carney said.
The agreement, which Trump negotiated and Congress passed during his first term, has become a critical anchor for North American commerce. The three countries conduct roughly $2 trillion in annual trade, and goods that comply with USMCA have largely been shielded from the broader tariff campaign the White House has waged. New duties on autos and steel from both Canada and Mexico have still created friction and disrupted supply chains.
A notable asymmetry has emerged in how the negotiations are structured. American and Mexican officials have been conducting formal, scheduled rounds of talks, while Canada has not yet entered that stage. Carney has attributed the gap to the comparatively larger volume of trade disputes the US has with Mexico.
Even so, Canadian and American officials remain in active dialogue. Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister leading trade talks with Washington, met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on June 2 and is set to meet with him again at the G7. Canada notably formally requested a review of USMCA during that meeting.
Carney said the two have seen positive movement on several fronts, though he declined to offer specifics. “Lots to do, but progress being made,” he said.
On the question of whether a US-Mexico deal could set an unfavorable precedent for Canada, Carney pushed back on the framing. His government is in regular contact with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, he said, with both sides committed to preserving an integrated North American market.
Carney had separately said on Thursday that Canada is also pursuing its own bilateral trade arrangement with Mexico.
Trump as of late meanwhile has been on a tirade against the agreement, saying this past week that he’s “not looking to renew it.” He later added, “I don’t know that I’m going to renew (USMCA), because to be honest with you, the United States does much better.”
The US last year had a trade deficit with Canada to the tune of $46.4 billion, while also having a deficit of $197 billion with Mexico.
Despite that fact, Trump has said, “You know, with Mexico or Canada, we have trade deficits, we should have surpluses with them. We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber, we don’t need their energy, we don’t need anything that they have.”
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