Listen to this article
Estimated 6 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s point-person on trade laid out a series of conditions Wednesday that Canada must meet in order to extend the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement (CUSMA) when it comes up for a review next year — revealing publicly for the first time what the administration expects Prime Minister Mark Carney to do to keep the pact for the long term.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told the U.S. Congress that CUSMA has been “successful to a certain degree” but there need to be changes before Trump agrees to extend it for another 16 years or revert to yearly reviews, something Canada is eager to avoid given the resulting annual uncertainty.
“I don’t think we can say that USMCA is an unqualified success,” Greer said in his remarks, which were shared publicly after his closed-door meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
While Greer said the deal has turbocharged American exports to Canada and Mexico — they are up 56 per cent since 2020, according to his figures — “the shortcomings are such that a rubber stamp of the agreement is not in the national interest.”
Greer said his office will “keep the president’s options open, negotiating firmly to resolve the issues identified, but only recommending renewal if resolution can be achieved.”
That rhetoric is a departure from Trump’s past characterizations of the trilateral trade deal he brokered in his first term. At the time, the president called CUSMA “the best agreement we’ve ever made.”
‘Market access’ for U.S. dairy
Greer said the U.S. will take aim at two major Canadian policies: the Online Streaming Act, which brought online platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube under Canadian broadcasting rules, and the supply-managed dairy sector, among others.
Greer said for the CUSMA review to be successful Canada must bolster “market access for U.S. dairy products,” and address “Canada’s exports of certain dairy products,” an apparent reference to claims that the Canadian sector allegedly dumps milk ingredients cheaply, undercutting American producers.
While he didn’t call for supply management to be dismantled entirely — something that Canada has repeatedly stressed is a non-starter — he told Congress that Canada has policies that “unfairly restrict market access” and they must be dealt with.
Canada does allow some U.S. dairy products to trade into Canada tariff-free, but there is a limit — and American suppliers have never reached it. Still, the U.S. dairy lobby wants those rules loosened somewhat.
Greer also said that that Trudeau-era streaming legislation “discriminates against U.S. tech and media firms,” and there needs to be some sort of revision of that policy, although he was not prescriptive in his remarks.
That legislation was brought about to force U.S. web giants to contribute financially to the domestic media ecosystem and make Canadian content readily available on their platforms, which have become ubiquitous as traditional TV, cable and satellite providers shed subscribers.
Boycott hits liquor giant
Greer also wants Canada to address the “provincial bans on the distribution of U.S. alcohol beverages,” which came about as a form of protest to Trump’s aggressive tariff action on key sectors like steel, aluminum, autos and lumber.
Those liquor boycotts have been hugely impactful. U.S. spirits giant Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel’s, has seen its Canadian sales plunge by more than 60 per cent.
The ban has caught the attention of American officials at the highest level. Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, has previously said those provincial liquor restrictions — and the massive decline in Canadian tourism to the U.S. — are “why the president and some of his team referred to Canada as being mean and nasty to deal with, OK, because of some of those steps.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, has been firm, saying he will keep U.S. brands out of the LCBO until there’s a deal for tariff relief — or there’s a renegotiated CUSMA in place. “If they don’t, then they aren’t getting any booze on our shelves,” he said recently.
The Trump administration is also demanding Canada address “discriminatory procurement measures” in Ontario, Quebec and B.C. and “complicated customs registration” that some Canadian companies must adhere to when receiving U.S. exports.
Lastly, Greer said Alberta must revisit its “unfair treatment of electrical power distribution providers in Montana.”
Another issue that is mentioned in Greer’s remarks — but not explicitly spelled out as a condition that must be resolved to get to a renewal — is what he calls “regulatory imbalances with Canadian fishers” in the “grey zone” near New Brunswick and Maine.
There have been long-simmering tensions between the two countries over lobster catches in that part of the Gulf of Maine, which has been claimed by both Canada and the United States.
In a positive sign for Canada, Greer acknowledged the overwhelming consensus from the North American business and labour groups who testified at a series of hearings on CUSMA earlier month is that the agreement should continue in some form.
“Many explicitly called for the agreement to be extended,” Greer said. “However, at the same time, virtually all stakeholders also called for some sort of improvement to the agreement.”
Greer left open the possibility of separate bilateral deals with Canada and Mexico as opposed to a comprehensive trilateral pact like what exists now — although he said some continental-wide issues like rules of origin, critical minerals, or economic security alignment are best addressed collaboratively with all three partners.
