\u201cCanada is ready, willing, and able to commence the review of CUSMA,\u201d Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Mark Wiseman told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 23.<\/p>\n
Conservative MPs at the committee meeting questioned why Mexico is actively engaged while Canada is taking a \u201cgo slow\u201d approach to trade talks with the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trade consultant Eric Miller, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, said no one party has control over a negotiation, especially when they are a smaller party in the talks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cPart of Canada\u2019s approach is also about the readiness and willingness of the United States to talk,\u201d said Miller, a former official in Canada\u2019s embassy in Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said that another factor in the differing approach are the calls for concessions before the trade talks start. Radio-Canada reported<\/a> that the U.S. is demanding an \u201centry fee\u201d from Canada before talks began. Miller said that isn\u2019t the case for Mexico. Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) said that U.S. President Donald Trump won\u2019t dictate the terms of the talks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCanada has developed \u2026 a classic kind of model that it has used in the past, which is diligent, relatively slow, really analytical, and so that\u2019s where it is approaching things,\u201d said Miller, remarking that the dynamics between Canada and the U.S., and Mexico and the U.S. are different.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn Mexico, the prevailing view has been we need a deal no matter what, and we\u2019ll pay a lot to get a deal if we have to,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIn Canada, the prevailing view as defined by both [former Conservative prime minister] Stephen Harper and [former Liberal deputy prime minister] John Manley is that no deal is better than a bad deal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to risk locking Canada into a structurally disadvantageous position or capping its ability to do trade deals with other countries in other parts of the world, which would cap future growth potentially,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t see it as a viable option that Canada can take the same approach as Mexico.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Carlo Dade, director of the New North America Initiative at the University of Calgary\u2019s School of Public Policy, said that it hasn\u2019t benefitted any country to make an agreement with the U.S. instead of waiting.<\/p>\n He said that Canada was one of the lone countries that reacted correctly to the tariffs enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) last year. After the tariffs were put in place, many countries signed agreements with the U.S. that set in place a baseline levy, but Canada did not. Those tariffs were ruled unlawful by the U.S. Supreme Court this past February.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were the one country that didn\u2019t make concessions on threats that were based on IEEPA,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dade said that it was wise for Canada to wait out the court\u2019s IEEPA decision, but now it is important to wait to see the results of the upcoming U.S. Congressional midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n Calls build for transparency\u00a0<\/p>\n At the April 24 committee meeting, Wiseman said that he wouldn\u2019t delve into details about Canada\u2019s strategy for approaching the review, and wouldn\u2019t confirm whether Canada is taking a deliberate approach of delay.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn my career as a business leader, an investor, a deal maker, I\u2019ve never done a deal on the front pages of the newspaper that has been successful,\u201d Wiseman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington\u2013Halton Hills North, Ont.), his party\u2019s foreign affairs critic, questioned the transparency of the government during the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an investment bank here, it\u2019s a democracy, and this is the heart of the democracy. Canadians have the right to know what\u2019s going on,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Jamie Tronnes, executive director of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, said that there haven\u2019t been enough updates from the Canadian government about what it is seeking to accomplish.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe line of \u2018trust me, I know what I\u2019m doing\u2019 ends when you don\u2019t show that you\u2019re doing something with people\u2019s trust,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere needs to be more official government information sharing so businesses can feel that trust with the government,\u201d Tronnes said. \u201cThe problem that the Liberals are having at the moment is that they are relying on \u2018elbows up\u2019 as a strategy to shore up that trust, and that\u2019s a mistake because we can still be very patriotic people, but we also have to feed our families and know that the people we\u2019ve elected to do the job of negotiating with the U.S. have a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n She said that with a mixed view among Canadians about a delayed approach to the negotiations, there is a need for the government to be more transparent about its objectives and the state of the looming review, as well as the sectoral tariffs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that there isn\u2019t a lot of transparency is harming the government\u2019s case that they have a plan, they\u2019re doing what is in accordance with that plan, and going slow is a key part of the plan that they have in mind,\u201d Tronnes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dade said there is an issue that increased transparency could result in a Trumpian reaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere has to be a balance between transparency and informing Canadians versus transparency and informing our adversaries and those whom we are negotiating with,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a clear line.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Divide and conquer\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n In an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations<\/a>, U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Rick Switzer called Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum \u201ca serious leader.\u201d On the other hand, he said that Carney has made the trading relationship \u201cpersonal,\u201d calling it \u201cpolitical malpractice\u201d for a Canadian prime minister to \u201cpit\u201d himself against a U.S. president as Canada is \u201cdependent on the U.S. economy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Miller said that the Trump administration has become \u201cdeeply frustrated\u201d with Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of why they\u2019re frustrated is that everybody else in the world has basically agreed to the U.S. terms\u2014the Europeans, the Japanese, not China, but pretty much everyone else,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dade, who is a member of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations, said that while Mexico has engaged, it has not agreed to any concessions with the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cMexico has a different relationship on their end, but they\u2019re not giving away the farm. They\u2019re not making concessions. They\u2019ve got demands of the administration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He said the Trump administration will try an approach of \u201cdivide and conquer\u201d with Canada and Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe first Trump administration tried that. It was their go-to strategy. And I think they\u2019re simply repeating it,\u201d Dade said, remarking that while Mexico and the U.S. signed an agreement during the NAFTA renegotiations, it was the Mexicans who continued to brief Canada on the state of their bilateral talks with the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe alliance between Canada and Mexico held last time. I see no reason for it not to continue this time,\u201d said Dade, remarking that it is likely to expand this go around.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Carney spoke with Sheinbaum on April 24 during which the two leaders discussed the looming CUSMA review and \u201cagreed to work in close co-ordination to address shared economic priorities and challenges, and deliver greater certainty, security, and prosperity for their peoples,\u201d according to a PMO readout.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diego Marroqu\u00edn Bitar, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the approach of Canada and Mexico differs because of the domestic political realities in each country.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor Mexico, it\u2019s important to be at the table. For Canada, they don\u2019t have the same urgency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He noted that Mexico\u2019s export economy is heavily dependent on the U.S., and it is essential for the survival of CUSMA for Sheinbaum\u2019s electoral future.<\/p>\n Despite the differing approaches, Marroqu\u00edn Bitar said that, so far, Canada and Mexico are in the same spot, noting that when changes were made on the steel and aluminum tariff regime they were offered to both Mexico and Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n Future Borders Coalition executive director Laura Dawson said that Canada and Mexico\u2019s approaches can\u2019t be judged against each other given the difference in their markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n But she noted that Canada needs to be careful with a \u201cgo slow\u201d approach, remarking that a delayed approach to wait for the effects of tariff costs on U.S. businesses and consumers has not altered Trump\u2019s negotiations strategy as of yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCanadian businesses who operate in highly integrated supply chains with the U.S. are more vulnerable the longer that Canada drags its feet.\u00a0The effects of such a strategy have to be worth the potential costs,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dawson said that if Canada is appearing uncooperative, then the Trump administration may threaten a withdrawal from the agreement and replace it with a U.S.-Mexico bilateral pact.\u00a0<\/p>\n nmoss@hilltimes.com<\/p>\n The Hill Times<\/p>\n \u00a0\n <\/p>\n Neil Moss is a reporter with The Hill Times who covers federal politics, foreign policy, international trade, Canada-U.S. relations, and defence, as well as leading the newspaper’s annual Top 50 list of foreign policy influencers. See all stories BY NEIL MOSS<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Mexico and the United States planning to convene for formal bilateral talks for the review of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,4939],"class_list":{"0":"post-24168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-cusma"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Mark Wiseman says Canada is \u2018ready, willing, and able to commence the review of CUSMA.\u2019 The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/6L8A2179-1024x683.jpg\")
Conservative MP Michael Chong has called on the Liberal government to be more transparent about its negotiation strategy ahead of the CUSMA review. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/G1KHMc8WEAAClY6-1024x1024.jpg\")
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, left, and Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke on April 24 during which they agreed to work in \u2018close collaboration.\u2019 Photograph courtesy of X<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/niel-moss.jpg\")
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