Carney says U.S. tariff reprieve 'unlikely' to happen before CUSMA review talks

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday that efforts to see U.S. President Donald Trump remove or lessen tariffs on Canadian sectors will now be dealt with alongside their joint review of the trilateral trade agreement with Mexico.

Carney said there won’t be time to negotiate a tariff reprieve, given that Canada failed to reach a deal with the U.S. before the president broke talks off in late October and with both countries now heading into their first review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA), slated for 2026.

“We’re unlikely, given the time horizons coming together, to have a sectoral agreement,” the prime minister told reporters at a news conference, alongside Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

“Although if the United States wants to come back on that, in those areas, we’re always ready there. We’re very ready.”

Before Trump suspended negotiations, Carney said on Thursday the two countries were “close” to reaching an agreement, which would have covered tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as energy.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra told National Post in an interview last week that it would also have covered uranium, adding he believes that both parties would eventually restart their talks, with the question being only a matter of when.

On Thursday, speaking at a signing ceremony with Ford on an agreement to speed up the approvals process for major infrastructure projects, Carney said he believes “that is now going to roll into the broader (CUSMA) negotiation.”

Earlier this month, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer held a series of hearings and heard submissions on how the agreement was working, ahead of its first joint review, scheduled for July 1, 2026, six years after it came into effect.

That agreement replaced the former North American Free Trade Agreement, which had been in place since the early 1990s. Trump had blamed that deal for the loss of manufacturing jobs across the U.S.

His first term saw Canada and Mexico renegotiate their three-way trading relationship, resulting in the current agreement, which is scheduled to undergo the first joint review in 2026.

Under the agreement, countries could choose to extend it, including with specific changes, or withdraw from it completely.

Greer recently confirmed in interviews and other public appearances that withdrawal remains an option. 

A transcript of recent remarks he made to a closed-door meeting of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committee about the upcoming joint review also summarized the irritants he wants Canada to address as part of that process.

Greer named, as one of those conditions, market access for U.S. dairy products, taking direct aim at Canada’s supply management system, which Carney said on Thursday, “is never on the table,” speaking in French.

In his remarks, Greer also pointed to two major pieces of Canadian digital policy, the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act.

He also singled out provinces that have removed U.S. booze from their shelves as well as “discriminatory procurement policies” in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

Greer also said in his remarks his office “will keep the president’s options open,” but would only recommend a renewal of the agreement “if resolution can be achieved.”

He also added that he would work to determine which issues with Canada and Mexico could be dealt with on both a trilateral and bilateral basis.

Ford, who ordered the LCBO to pull American alcohol from its shelves earlier this year as Trump hit Canada with his first wave of tariffs, suggested on Thursday he has no plans on backing down.

“When the prime minister and President Trump come up with a great deal for both countries, we’d be more than happy to bring in some, maybe Kentucky bourbon,” Ontario’s premier said.

“But until then, we’re going to hold off.”

Ford also defended his decision to run a set of anti-tariff television and radio ads in the U.S., which Trump named as the reason he suspended trade negotiations with Carney.

Calling it a “great ad,” Ford added that it was Trump’s public remarks about the ad campaign that generated the attention it did.

The campaign nevertheless drew the ire of not only Trump, but also Hoekstra , who reportedly laid into Ontario’s provincial trade representative during a public event in Ottawa shortly after the ad was pulled.

Ford, at the time, called on Hoekstra to apologize.

Speaking to National Post last week, the U.S. ambassador, who said he speaks to Ford “every once and a while,” dismissed the notion of offering an apology for his behaviour, saying he believes in “direct communication.”

He called the decision by Ontario to run ads “unprecedented.”

“Am I going to apologize for calling out Ontario for interfering in an unprecedented way in American politics? Absolutely not.”

National Post

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