{"id":340314,"date":"2025-12-12T11:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/340314\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:34:12","slug":"carney-rejects-idea-trump-wants-to-exit-usmca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/340314\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney rejects idea Trump wants to exit USMCA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday.Spencer Colby\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> dismissed the idea that U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> is planning to withdraw from the trilateral USMCA<\/a> free-trade pact and strike separate deals with Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

He was responding to recent statements by Mr. Trump\u2019s point man on trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative, earlier this week repeated statements both he and Mr. Trump have made in the past including ambivalence about whether Washington would stick with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) or tear up the deal and negotiate separate deals with the two other countries.<\/p>\n

The USMCA has been a vital shield for Canada during the trade war with the United States. Mr. Trump has imposed a 35-per-cent blanket tariff<\/a> for Canadian products that aren\u2019t compliant with the USMCA\u2019s rules of origin but the carveout means most Canadian goods continue to enter the U.S. tariff-free.<\/p>\n

In hearings on the future of the USMCA, business leaders call on Trump to drop tariffs<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked Thursday whether he was willing to consider a one-on-one trade deal with the United States, Mr. Carney pushed back against the suggestion that Mr. Trump is mulling such a scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what they\u2019re saying,\u201d the Prime Minister told reporters.<\/p>\n

As early as May, during Mr. Carney\u2019s first visit to the White House, Mr. Trump raised the possibility of exiting the USMCA. \u201cWe do have a negotiation coming up in the next year or so, to adjust it or terminate it,\u201d he said at the time. <\/p>\n

Mr. Greer returned to this theme during a discussion at the Atlantic Council, a think tank, on Wednesday. \u201cCould it be exited? Yeah, it could be exited. Could it be revised? Yes. Could it be renegotiated? Yes,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cAll of those things are on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also repeated statements he made to the New York Economic Club in September where he predicted renegotiation of the USMCA will be mostly conducted separately with each country, adding that the trilateral accord doesn\u2019t reflect the reality that Washington\u2019s trade problems and frictions with its two neighbours are fundamentally different.<\/p>\n

U.S. and Canada discussed tariff-rate quota for steel before trade talks halted<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Greer, onetime chief of staff to former USTR Robert Lighthizer during Mr. Trump\u2019s first term as president, also told U.S. media outlet Politico last week that walking away from USMCA is \u201calways a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirsten Hillman, Canada\u2019s ambassador to the United States, testified Wednesday before the House ways and means committee in Washington, attempting to underline for members of Congress how important Canadian trade is to U.S. interests.<\/p>\n

She handed out packages for each committee member that calculate the level of Canadian investment in their electoral districts, the jobs it supports and how much in exports their constituents sell to Canada. Ms. Hillman said all members\u2019 districts exported a minimum of US$250-million annually to Canada, and many of them over US$1-billion.<\/p>\n

Responding to Mr. Greer\u2019s comments, the Canadian envoy said the Americans have not informed Ottawa they want to scrap the trilateral trade deal and cut separate pacts with Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States has never proposed to Canada we jettison the USMCA in favour of two bilateral deals,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Hillman said it\u2019s not unusual for a negotiating partner such as Mr. Greer to avoid ruling out any measures at the outset. \u201cI think it\u2019s normal, at this stage of a discussion, for him not to be taking any option off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

From airlines to winemakers, U.S. businesses push Trump to preserve North American free trade<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada, the United States and Mexico are all preparing for a scheduled review of the USMCA in 2026 during which the U.S. is expected to seek to renegotiate sections of the pact.<\/p>\n

Ms. Hillman said preliminary discussions about the coming review have begun among all three countries and will continue in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already talking to both Mexico and the United States about just how we start to get ourselves organized. We do expect that to continue and start mapping this out in January.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, said he \u201ccurrently has no reason to believe that the United States intends to withdraw from the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).\u201d Gabriel Brunet said the minister has been encouraged by his discussions with the United States and looks forward to the coming review.<\/p>\n

Brian Clow, who served as deputy chief of staff to former prime minister Justin Trudeau, has said he is increasingly concerned that Mr. Trump will issue a withdrawal notice to put pressure on Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

A withdrawal notice from any country that is a signatory to the USMCA would trigger a six-month countdown to that member exiting the agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday.Spencer Colby\/The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-340314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}