(theglobeandmail.com)
Carney says issues on steel, aluminum and other sectors will be rolled into the broader USMCA negotiations.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he does not expect that Canada and the U.S. will reach a near-term deal to end President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and other sectors, and that these negotiations will instead become part of a coming review of the pact that governs continental trade.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Thursday before signing an agreement with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to speed up approvals for infrastructure projects, Mr. Carney said the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement would absorb the talks on Mr. Trump’s punishing sectoral tariffs.
The review of the deal, referred to as USMCA by the U.S. government and CUSMA by the Canadian government, is expected to happen next year, but an exact timeline has not been established.
This means that it could be another year or more before the countries reach an agreement to lift or reduce Mr. Trump’s levies, prolonging the pain across several sectors of Canada’s economy.
“My judgment is that that is now going to roll into the broader CUSMA negotiations, so we’re less likely, we’re unlikely, given the time horizons coming together, to have a sectoral agreement,” Mr. Carney said.
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The two sides had been negotiating over the tariffs until October, when Mr. Trump abruptly ended the talks because of an anti-tariff ad that the Ontario government aired on U.S. television. Mr. Ford ultimately pulled the ad at Mr. Carney’s request.
The Prime Minister said on Thursday that he was still open to making a separate sectoral deal, though he said the U.S. has not taken him up on it.
“We were close to an agreement. We didn’t get that agreement. The terms of that agreement, from our perspective, are still on the table,” he said. “If the United States wanted to sit down this weekend, we could sit down this weekend.”
The Globe and Mail has previously reported that the deal under discussion in October would have seen Canadian steel exports to the U.S. subject to a system of quotas and tariffs.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this week presented to Congress the Trump administration’s priority list for USMCA talks. He singled out Canada’s protectionist supply-management system for dairy and the Online Streaming Act, which allows Ottawa’s telecom regulator to impose Canadian content requirements on U.S. streaming services, as the two top irritants he planned to address in negotiations.
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Mr. Greer also listed several other friction points, including the Online News Act, which requires social-media platforms in Canada to pay publishers for linking to or republishing their content; provincial procurement practices that favour local companies; and provincial bans on U.S. liquor in retaliation against the tariffs.
But Mr. Greer also appeared to push a Fortress North America approach in some key areas, such as tightening rules of origin for industrial goods to ensure more components are made in North America; creating a “Critical Minerals Marketplace” for the three countries; and better aligning tariff, export and investment rules.
It was unclear how such moves toward greater economic integration would square with Mr. Trump’s efforts to roll back integration that already exists within autos and other industries. Such demands could also clash with Mr. Carney’s efforts to make Canada less dependent on the U.S. economy by seeking closer business ties to other countries.
Mr. Greer was silent on steel, autos, aluminum and lumber – four key Canadian sectors subject to damaging U.S. tariffs – in his presentation. And he appeared to focus mostly on conventional trade issues rather than making the protectionist demands that are the hallmark of Mr. Trump’s economic agenda.
Brian Clow, former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s adviser on Canada-U.S. relations during the previous round of USMCA negotiations, said Mr. Greer’s comments, both in the document and in recent speeches, sound like he wants to negotiate a deal rather than end the current system of continental trade.
“His tone is encouraging, in that it doesn’t sound like he wants to blow up the USMCA,” Mr. Clow said.
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However, he said, Mr. Trump, and not Mr. Greer, will ultimately call the shots on the file. “I wouldn’t read this list as the exhaustive list of things the U.S. may raise in the talks,” Mr. Clow said.
Mr. Carney also described Mr. Greer’s document on Thursday as only “a subset of issues of a much larger discussion.”
The Prime Minister said that he, Mr. Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum “set out the broad parameters” for USMCA negotiations earlier this month when the trio met at the FIFA World Cup draw in Washington.
He said he still hoped that the talks could lead to greater economic integration between the two countries, including in the auto and aerospace sectors, but signalled that Canada was prepared to work with other trading partners if the U.S. refused to play ball.
Touting planned critical-mineral mining in Ontario’s Ring of Fire region, Mr. Carney said it was “a potential opportunity for the United States, but it is not an assured opportunity for the United States.”
Mr. Ford, meanwhile, said he would not back down on his decision to pull U.S. alcohol from government-owned liquor stores until a broader trade deal is concluded.
“When the Prime Minister and President Trump come up with a great deal for both countries, we’d be more than happy to bring in some Kentucky bourbon. But until then, we’re going to hold off,” he said.
The Premier also expressed no regrets about running the anti-tariff ad. “That was the best ad that’s ever been run,” he declared, as Mr. Carney laughed behind him.
“We wanted to bring it to the attention of the American people. And, to be very frank, it was President Trump; if he didn’t comment on it, rather than 12.4 billion views, it might be 12.4 people viewing it,” Mr. Ford added.