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By Jack Hughes<\/a><\/p>\n June 26, 2026<\/p>\n During his first term, President Donald Trump called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (CUSMA) \u201ca great deal\u201d. His praise for the agreement during his second term has been decidedly more circumspect. As the three countries complete the agreement\u2019s mandatory review, Prime Minister Mark Carney has insightfully assessed that the best way to ensure it\u2019s extended for another 16-year period is to make CUSMA great again in Trump\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n It\u2019s likely true President Trump would never have embraced a rubber-stamp review, regardless of what he thinks of the deal today. In both business and politics, he\u2019s always scorned the status quo. Still, while we don\u2019t know when he stopped thinking the CUSMA was great, it\u2019s shrewd for Prime Minister Carney to focus on the reasons why he no longer does. Some are technical, others political, but fortunately, none appear insurmountable.<\/p>\n When senior representatives from the Business Council of Canada<\/a> met this past March with the U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, he emphasized what we had heard from White House officials and Republicans in Congress: President Trump wants to know how extending the USMCA (as it is called in Washington) will increase investment in the U.S., including onshoring manufacturing; creating new jobs; and addressing the perceived trade imbalances.<\/p>\n Ambassador Greer also reiterated, as he has said publicly, the Trump administration has no desire to renegotiate the deal\u2019s 34 chapters. It\u2019s a review, not a renegotiation, and the purpose of including a mandatory review mechanism in the agreement was twofold: to afford all three countries the opportunity to assess whether the USMCA was working as intended; and, importantly, to identify whether there are ways in which it could work even better.<\/p>\n With respect to the former, there are three main areas involving Canada where the U.S. believes the USMCA has not lived up to expectations:<\/p>\n allocation of tariff rate quota with respect to dairy The U.S. government position under both the Biden and Trump administrations has been that Canada\u2019s interpretation of the agreement remains inconsistent with the commitments it had made.<\/p>\n In the case of both dairy quota allocation and auto rules of origin, the United States was ultimately disappointed by the decisions of USMCA\/CUSMA dispute panels. On digital policies, specifically Canada\u2019s digital services tax, the Biden administration formally requested dispute settlement consultations. It\u2019s not surprising, then, the Trump administration has made resolving those interpretation and implementation issues a priority for the review.<\/p>\n This is as it should be.<\/p>\n The parties to the agreement have different understandings of how its terms should be applied and they are using the opportunity provided by the review provision to discuss those differences. Whether the two sides thought they were agreeing to different things when the text was negotiated, or whether clarification is required based on how it was later interpreted, the review process is the right time for those discussions.<\/p>\n Wisely eschewing unilateral concessions, Prime Minister Carney has said negotiators are making progress working through the list of trade irritants. Though he hasn\u2019t set down any red lines \u2014 at least not publicly \u2014 he\u2019s been steadfast in saying he\u2019ll safeguard Canadian interests.<\/p>\n To use a poker expression, Carney is playing the man, not playing the cards. He knows President Trump won\u2019t make a deal unless he thinks it\u2019s great, so he\u2019s trying to make USMCA great again.<\/p>\n At the same time, his government is taking actions \u2013 such as directing the CRTC to review its decision on online streaming \u2013 which signal he may be open to potential compromises.<\/p>\n Yet, Prime Minister Carney appreciates it won\u2019t be that easy.<\/p>\n Anything President Trump can dismiss as \u2018tweaks\u2019 on technical issues won\u2019t \u2018Make USMCA Great Again.\u2019 In this as in all things, the president will want to say that he achieved an even greater outcome than he did in his first term. This helps to explain the second element of the prime minister\u2019s strategy \u2014 suggesting Canada, like Mexico, remains open to possibly greater integration.<\/p>\n It is safe to say that few expected Prime Minister Carney to float the idea of deeper integration with the United States in his recent speech<\/a> to the Global Progress Action Summit<\/a>. Just three weeks earlier, he\u2019d warned Canadians that many of our close ties to America had become weaknesses. He repeated that warning at the Global Progress Action Summit but then added Canada\u2019s response \u201cbegins by reimagining aspects of North American integration.\u201d<\/p>\n Prime Minister Carney then revealed there were even \u201coptions for Fortress North America in selected sectors and to be clear, those offers are on the table.\u201d He extended this olive branch again three weeks later in remarks to the Economic Club of New York<\/a>: \u201cThe examples are legion where we should work together and compete with the world together. To those ends, we have made specific, practical proposals to the U.S. administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocating for a more integrated partnership in areas where the U.S., to be competitive, needs Canadian inputs \u2014 energy, critical minerals, and aluminum \u2014 was bold. It astutely answered the very question President Trump has been asking his officials:<\/p>\n Will extending the USMCA help us to attract investment, onshore manufacturing, create jobs, and reduce global trade imbalances? Answer: \u201cCanada Strong will help make America great again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nrules of origin for automobiles
\ndigital services policies<\/p>\n