TORONTO — The US-Canadian Commerce Minister said on Thursday that the agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada may be subject to annual review, and that uncertainty may be the goal of the Trump administration.
Dominique LeBlanc told an audience of business leaders in Toronto that he will meet with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer late next week in Washington ahead of the mandatory sanctions review. USMCA In July.
“If there is no consensus in the review, the agreement will continue,” LeBlanc said. “Then you start an annual review, and if uncertainty is one of the goals of one of our partners (USMCA), you can imagine scenarios of how it could go.”
LeBlanc said the current uncertainty about the future of the FTA is causing disruption in investment decisions in Canada.
“Net business investment has gone down,” LeBlanc said. “Here is one of the big challenges. We have to control what we can control.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has set a goal for Canada Double non-US. exports in the next decade, saying US tariffs are causing a chill in investment. Carney recently concluded a trade agreement with China and is visiting India this week.
US President Donald Trump negotiated the USMCA in his first term and included a provision to review the deal in 2026.
Trump talked about convincing American automakers to close factories in Canada and move them to the United States, and Greer talked about “bringing” industrial production back home.
LeBlanc said he was “not pessimistic” about the future of the trade deal because the United States maintained an exemption for Canada and Mexico under the deal when Trump announced new tariffs recently.
“So they are doing it because it is in the interest of the American economy to do so,” he added.
Most of Canada’s exports are to the United States Currently exempt by USMCA. But the definitions are Which negatively affects certain sectors of the Canadian economy, especially aluminium, steel, automobiles and lumber.
LeBlanc said he felt Canada was close to reaching an agreement on sectoral tariffs in the fall, before Trump abruptly ended the talks in response to Trump’s decision. Anti-tariff television commercial produced by the Ontario government.
LeBlanc said Trump administration officials had engaged in a “political debate” over trade publicly, but insisted that was not the case behind closed doors.
“There is a public trial of this argument, and it is a political argument in the United States, and there are private conversations between government and government, and it is not discouraged,” LeBlanc said.