{"id":809651,"date":"2026-07-18T07:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T07:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/809651\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T07:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T07:56:18","slug":"mexico-not-looking-to-cut-separate-deal-with-u-s-and-leave-canada-out-top-diplomat-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/809651\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico not looking to cut separate deal with U.S. and leave Canada out, top diplomat says"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand arrives at a press conference in Ottawa on Friday alongside Roberto Velasco \u00c1lvarez, Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s top diplomat says his government has no interest in striking a separate trade arrangement with Washington that would jettison the three-way United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.<\/p>\n

The Mexicans next week are holding a third round of formal bilateral negotiations with the United States on the renewal of the USMCA. Formal negotiations between Canada and the U.S. have yet to begin.<\/p>\n

Roberto Velasco \u00c1lvarez, Mexico\u2019s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, was in Ottawa Friday for meetings with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand. He shook his head when asked at a press conference whether Mexico would consider striking a bilateral agreement with the United States that leaves Canada behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe USMCA is a trilateral agreement,\u201d Mr. Velasco said. \u201cAnd of course, the three countries agree that that architecture should continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters that \u200bformal trade talks with Mexico were progressing, while discussions with Canada had yet to produce concessions sought by President Donald Trump as \u200che pushes to reduce U.S. trade deficits with the two countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s going well with the Mexicans. They\u2019re quite pragmatic,\u201d Mr. Greer said during an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. \u201cBut our trade deficit with Mexico really is a challenge. It really is a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump threatens new tariffs on Canada over wildfire smoke<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Greer noted Wednesday that the United States has not started formal negotiations with \u200bCanada on the trade pact\u2019s future, although he speaks with Canadian counterparts weekly.<\/p>\n

The United States on July 1 declined to extend the \u2060USMCA, citing concerns including shortcomings including \u201cour trade deficits with\u201d Canada and Mexico. Both Canada and Mexico had said they wanted to renew the deal.<\/p>\n

The decision started a clock to wind down the North American trade deal in a decade unless the three countries can \u200bagree on improvements.<\/p>\n

Asked if Mexico is far ahead of Canada on USMCA talks, Mr. Velasco said he would not comment on the nature of conversations Canada is undertaking with the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of us have bilateral issues,\u201d he said. \u201cEach of us is trying to resolve their bilateral issues in their own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Mr. Velasco and Ms. Anand declined to say whether Canada and Mexico\u2019s embrace of Chinese-made electric vehicles will be an obstacle to renewal of the USMCA. The United States government under Mr. Trump is hostile to Chinese-made EVs. Mr. Greer has raised concerns about Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s decision to break with the United States and roll back 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese EVs that were imposed in coordination with Washington in 2024. Mr. Carney is allowing in 49,000 Chinese EVs annually under a much reduced tariff rate \u2013 a quota that will rise over the next five years.<\/p>\n

Canada is trying to attract Chinese EV manufacturers to build in Canada and vehicles from China have captured a sizeable share of Mexico\u2019s car market.<\/p>\n

The two small, sub-$35,000 EVs Chinese automaker Dongfeng hopes to sell in Canada next year<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Velasco said there is only one Chinese vehicle manufacturer currently operating in Mexico and that sales of vehicles from China are mainly for the low end of the market.<\/p>\n

He said Chinese EVs are part of the trade discussions with the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, this is part of the USMCA talks, and we continue to look for ways as well to lower the tariffs that the United States has implemented [on Mexico],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also on Wednesday, Mr. Greer said he\u2019s glad Canada dropped its digital services tax and \u201crolled back\u201d its Online Streaming Act but they \u201cdon\u2019t really get credit for doing something bad and then undoing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Dominic LeBlanc, minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, said Ottawa remains prepared for talks with Washington. <\/p>\n

\u201cCanada is ready to do the work on an expedited basis to get to a successful renewal of the CUSMA and provide certainty and predictability to our workers and businesses,\u201d press secretary Gabriel Brunet said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo that end, Canada has put forward proposals that are fair, balanced, and good for the broader North American economy. We look forward to further engagement with our American counterparts.\u201d<\/p>\n

With files from Reuters and The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand arrives at a press conference in Ottawa on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-809651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809651","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=809651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}