Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he sees a path to renew the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and anticipates more specifics from the U.S. administration soon.<\/p>\n
Gearing up to head back to Washington, D.C. next week to meet with U.S. Trade Representative \u200cJamieson Greer and \u201cothers\u201d next week, LeBlanc said he\u2019s \u201cnot pessimistic about renewing the trilateral framework.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRenewing. It doesn\u2019t expire, it expires in 2036. But the review is not a renegotiation,\u201d LeBlanc said during a fireside chat at the Canadian Club in Toronto on Thursday. <\/p>\n
LeBlanc said two of the key factors underpinning his optimism are that when U.S. President Donald Trump levied his latest global tariff, he maintained the CUSMA exemption, and because American political and business leaders are \u201cspeaking up more now.\u201d <\/p>\n
As the three countries prepare for formal talks the minister responsible for the file in this country said the \u201cprivate government- to government- to government conversations\u201d are \u201cproceeding\u201d and told the crowd they \u201care not discouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversations are businesslike, cordial, amicable. They\u2019re very friendly, and I think we\u2019re getting to a position where the United States will get specific with Canada and Mexico about specific things that they may want to see adjusted,\u201d LeBlanc said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re ready for those conversations. We\u2019re actually anxious to have them.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2018Not going chapter-by-chapter\u2019 <\/p>\n
The minister also made a point of noting that CUSMA\u2019s text \u201cis not very specific\u201d on what the review actually needs to be. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be a half an hour meeting with Jameson Greer and [Mexican Secretary of Economy] Marcelo Ebrard and I, everything\u2019s good, nothing to see here, let\u2019s keep going,\u201d LeBlanc said to some laughter, before adding that if that was to be the outcome, he and Ebrard \u201cwould be happy.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also said the pre-negotiation political and industrial consultations are \u201cgoing well.\u201d Canada has already finished its talks with stakeholders. They are still underway domestically in U.S. <\/p>\n
LeBlanc let the largely business-minded crowd know that his message to industry leaders is \u201cit\u2019s not 2016 again\u201d \u2013 a reference to the extensive renegotiations undertaken by the previous Liberal government after Trump tore up NAFTA, the previous free trade deal. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going chapter-by-chapter, and this month it\u2019s going to be this sector, and everybody goes down and waits around in hotel lobbies for updates. It\u2019s not that, it\u2019s a review,\u201d LeBlanc said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s no consensus in the review, the agreement continues on. Then there\u2019s an annual review that starts. And if uncertainty is one of the objectives from one of our CUSMA partners, you can imagine scenarios of how this might go.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bilateral deals needed, in tandem <\/p>\n
Amid speculation that Trump wants to scrap the trilateral trade pact and strike trade deals with Canada and Mexico independently, LeBlanc said the way he sees it, Trump may pursue separate bilateral deals, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the end of CUSMA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have always been bilateral arrangements as between the three countries. That\u2019s not new,\u201d LeBlanc said. \u201cWe need to get a bilateral deal with the United States to take pressure off in the sectoral tariffs.\u201d <\/p>\n
The minister said Canadian officials did think they were close to a deal last fall to improve the tariff situation for steel, aluminum and energy sectors. As he prepares to head back down to D.C., he doesn\u2019t think that option is off the table. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose will be bilateral arrangements, sort of adjacent to \u2026 the trilateral trade agreement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the broader uncertainty surrounding the coming trilateral trade talks, LeBlanc said Canada\u2019s approach will be \u201cto acknowledge what we can\u2019t control and manage our way through the turbulence in the best way possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2018Not concerned about Mexico\u2019 <\/p>\n
One area where LeBlanc said he has certainty, in this context, is with Mexico. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very much aligned with the Mexicans. The prime minister and President Scheinbaum speak regularly. There\u2019s a desire to work very collaboratively to renew the trilateral agreement, or to recommit to the trilateral agreement. So that was good\u201d LeBlanc said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not concerned about Mexico having a divergent interest from us in that process.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OBLOW7PBIFCNPFBGSTQHNRLOBQ.JPG\")
Canada-U.S. trade and tariffs Minister of Internal Trade, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy Dominic LeBlanc speaks to reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Spencer Colby Major project designations \u2018soon\u2019 <\/p>\n
After discussing the \u201cheadwinds\u201d that he said the federal government is experiencing as it pushes provinces and territories to dismantle interprovincial trade barriers, LeBlanc pointed to the Major Projects Office as a tool to help cut through some of those logjams. <\/p>\n
LeBlanc told the crowd that the Liberals are \u201cclose\u201d to designating projects as in the national interest and he\u2019s \u201cquite confident\u201d that doing so will \u201chelp unlock private investment.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOften just the sheer threat of, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re going to designate the project,\u2019 suddenly an authorization \u2013 which a particular federal department had been taking six or seven years doing water samples all over the place \u2013 all of a sudden, when I stood in that city, at that port and said: \u2018guess what? We\u2019re going to actually expand this port, then a month later, the authorization showed up,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we didn\u2019t have to go to the juridical step of designating it, but we will. There are some examples coming very soon.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2018Sentiment isn\u2019t enough\u2019<\/p>\n
Speaking about the federal government\u2019s efforts to diversify trade relationships beyond the U.S., LeBlanc said he feels Canadians\u2019 impatience.<\/p>\n
Though, he said that as it took time to develop Canada\u2019s deep economic ties with the U.S., it will take time for businesses and governments to build up relationships with other foreign countries. <\/p>\n
He also said that every time Carney comes back from international travel, or from speaking with other world leaders, \u201cHe\u2019ll say to us that he\u2019s enormously enthusiastic and motivated by how many of these people want to do business with Canada, want to explore investment opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201dBut, LeBlanc then added, \u201cBut that sentiment isn\u2019t enough. We\u2019ve got to turn it into concrete economic growth and therein lies the challenge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he sees a path to renew the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[712,49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-501917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501917","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=501917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}