{"id":72065,"date":"2026-06-02T23:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T23:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/72065\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T23:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T23:41:11","slug":"canada-urges-us-and-mexico-to-renew-free-trade-agreement-for-16-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/72065\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada urges US and Mexico to renew free-trade agreement for 16 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Canada<\/a> is calling on the United States and Mexico to renew the free trade agreement among their three countries<\/a> for another 16 years just as U.S. President Donald Trump revives talk of making Canada the 51st state.<\/p>\n

Dominic LeBlanc, Canada\u2019s minister for U.S. trade, sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Mexico\u2019s Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard conveying Canada\u2019s recommendation.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Agreement is highly beneficial to each of our countries and to the integrated North American economy,\u201d LeBlanc wrote.<\/p>\n

LeBlanc said Canada also received letters from Greer and Ebrard. Ebrard said on Tuesday that Mexico would also like it to be extended to 16 years.<\/p>\n

The letters come ahead of the scheduled July review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, the latest iteration of a North American free trade pact that has intertwined the economies of the United States, Mexico and Canada since the early 1990s. It can either be subject to annual reviews going forward, or renewed for 16 years. <\/p>\n

LeBlanc and Canada\u2019s Chief Trade Negotiator Janice Charette were in Washington on Tuesday for a meeting with Greer. LeBlanc said he presented a series of proposals to Greer that responded to a number of issues the U.S. has raised with Canada for some time. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn July 1 as Ambassador Greer has said publicly, if there is no consensus amongst the three parties to extend for 16 years, the agreement remains in place for 10 more years and there is a series of annual reviews,\u201d LeBlanc said. <\/p>\n

LeBlanc has previously said he believes the U.S. might want to have the trade agreement subject to annual reviews, and that the Trump administration might seek to cause uncertainty about the trade pact\u2019s permanence.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly said he believes Canada would be better off as a U.S. state \u2014 prompting repeated pushback and annoyance from Canadian politicians who have made a point of defending their country\u2019s sovereignty. On Monday, Trump posted \u201c51st State!\u201d on social media linking to a news article reporting that Canada is falling into a technical recession. The post was later reposted by U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra.<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford<\/a> issued a peeved response Tuesday: \u201cI can\u2019t believe I have to say this again, but Canada will never be the 51st state. Canada is not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked Tuesday if Ambassador Hoekstra should leave the country, but the Canadian leader said no. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an administration that we have to work with. It\u2019s our biggest trading relationship. It\u2019s our biggest security relationship … we take the administration as it is,\u201d Carney said, adding that Trump posts a lot on social media. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to respond to, react to, everything that he posts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney earlier acknowledged some weakness in the country\u2019s economy as he walked into a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Carney said the U.S. has about 30 different trade irritants with Canada compared to nearly 60 with Mexico. <\/p>\n

The U.S. could withdraw from the agreement with six months notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a possibility of a new partnership there,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n

The USMCA has allowed Canada and Mexico to avoid much of Trump\u2019s protectionist measures because many Mexican and Canadian goods are covered by the free trade agreement. But there are some key specific tariffs on things like aluminum that are damaging the integrated North American economy. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s talk of making Canada the 51st state has infuriated Canadians, who have been canceling trips<\/a> to the U.S. in big numbers.<\/p>\n

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker<\/a>, one of the Democratic Party\u2019s leading presidential prospects, said Trump has tried to destroy the relationship with America\u2019s northern neighbor with \u201cchaotic tariffs and mindless cruelty.\u201d Pritzker made the comments in a zoom call with Democrats Abroad on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

____ <\/p>\n

AP reporter Fabiola S\u00e1nchez in Mexico City contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Canada is calling on the United States and Mexico to renew the free trade agreement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[525,17,591,21892,596,7185,162,4079,592,8146,434,29483,7492,7490,3772,15532,111,388,29485,29484,113,8156,5996,218],"class_list":["post-72065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-canada-government","tag-central-america","tag-diplomacy","tag-dominic-leblanc","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-ford","tag-general-news","tag-international-agreements","tag-international-trade","tag-j-b-pritzker","tag-jamieson-greer","tag-janice-charette","tag-latin-america","tag-marcelo-ebrard","tag-mark-carney","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-government","tag-peter-hoekstra","tag-politics","tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72065","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=72065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}