WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the U.S. might not renew its free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and criticized trade deficits with those countries, although he said he was talking with their leaders about the matter.
The three countries need to approve a renewal of their existing agreement by July 1 or signal their intention to exit the pact, a process that would take 10 years and would buy time for alterations.
"I’m not looking to renew it," Trump said at the White House. "We don't need anything that Canada has. We don't need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have. They have to treat us better."
The U.S. Trade Representative's Office has said the U.S. and Mexico will hold a second round of negotiations in Washington June 16 and 17, focused on agriculture and "a level playing field," with a third set of talks in Mexico City scheduled for the week of July 20.
Canada had a positive meeting with the U.S. on the review of the free trade deal, Canada's minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, Dominic LeBlanc, said on Tuesday, but no date for formal negotiations between the two countries has been set.
The six-year-old United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement and its predecessor pact have created a highly integrated North American economy, underpinning nearly US$1.6 trillion in annual trilateral trade, but its future hinges on negotiations over the coming months.
The United States in 2025 had a US$46 billion trade deficit in goods with Canada and a US$197 billion deficit with Mexico.
Mexico has been the top U.S. trading partner since 2023 and some 80% of Mexican exports go to the United States, while nearly 70% of Canada's exports head to its southern neighbor. Mexico and Canada import nearly one-third of exported U.S. goods.
