In its statement regarding the US Trade Representative’s recently announced consultation on the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has warned the Trump administration about its trade strategy.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc's office said on Wednesday September 17 that it would be inviting the public’s feedback on CUSMA. In particular, it sought to engage Canadian industry leaders, provinces and territories, and Indigenous partners, CBC News reported.
This is in response to the Trump administration’s recent statement that it was launching a review into the agreement’s outcomes over the past five years.
Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing described the consultation’s launch as “an important milestone on the path to the 2026 CUSMA review.”
“Canadian businesses have been plagued for months with uncertainty due to this U.S. administration’s approach to trade policy. That corrosive lack of predictability undermines investment, planning and long-term growth. The only way to restore confidence is to fix the very framework that is now being tested: Our continental trade agreement, CUSMA,” Laing said in a statement.
Laing confirmed that the chamber would be making recommendations to boost the agreement based on input from its national network of chambers, sectoral associations, and businesses.
“Our message for the Trump administration is clear: Higher costs and new barriers are not a winning strategy for businesses on either side of the border. After decades of success under free trade enabled by CUSMA, our economies are deeply integrated. Manufacturers, supply chains, and service providers in both countries depend on this partnership to remain competitive and prosperous,” Laing said. “CUSMA is too important to our prosperity — and to North America’s global competitiveness — to allow it to unravel.”
Per CBC News, the federal government will formally announce the consultation in the next week. Pete Hoekstra, US ambassador to Canada, had said in his keynote address at a Canadian International Council event that “the Americans were hopeful that we could negotiate a bigger deal.”
“Whether it's on trade, whether it's energy, whether it's automotive, whether it's nuclear defence and all those types of things, we were hoping that we would not just renegotiate CUSMA but that we could take it into being something much bigger. It's obvious, at least at this point in time, that that's not going to happen,” Hoekstra said in a statement published by CBC News.