CMEDIA: U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly said that he is not looking to renew Canada-US-Mexico Agreement, the free trade deal between the three countries.
“We don’t need anything” that Canada or Mexico has, said the president.
By July 1, all three countries are required to say whether they would like to renew the agreement for 16 years.
Informal negotiations between the US and Canada have been going on for months, and the US has indicated it’s interested in renewing the trade pact.
“NAFTA was the worst trade deal I’ve ever seen,” said Trump, referring to CUSMA’s 1994 predecessor, the North American Free Trade Agreement. “I made it better, but I had the right to terminate. And with NAFTA, we didn’t have the right to terminate…We don’t need anything that Canada has. We don’t need anything that Mexico has, but we need everything that we have.”
According to the American census bureau Canada has exported US$127-billion worth of goods to the US so far this year, and imported US$114 billion-worth of American goods, meaning the US has accrued a US$12 billion trade deficit so far in 2026.
Being frustrated with the trade deficit Trump has repeatedly cited it as a problem with Canada-US trade and has already begun formal negotiations with Mexico about renewal with two more rounds of talks next week and in late July.
“We should have surpluses with them,” he said, referring to both Canada and Mexico.
In recent days Canada has been on the offensive as the review date draws nearer.
Canada, Mexico want deal renewed
CUSMA is crucial to the Canadian economy as it covers about $1.3 trillion in cross-border trade with the US and shields roughly 90 percent of Canada’s exports from Trump’s tariffs.
Canada and Mexico both formally declared they want the deal extended, but have also said they’re prepared to negotiate improvements. Trump’s top trade official, Jamieson Greer, has not made the US position public.
Last week Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Canada’s chief negotiator Janice Charette met with Greer and his team in Washington.
Canada put proposals on the table, LeBlanc said, to address what he called “long-standing issues that the United States has raised with us.”
Canada’s key goal in the talks is to get relief from Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum, automobiles and softwood lumber.
However, Greer has repeatedly Made clear that tariffs are something that all countries, including Canada, will have to live with as a price of access to the US market.
The Carney government did not immediately react to Trump’s latsest comments.
