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President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was open to extending the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) through a renegotiation or by pursuing “different deals,” as he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House amid growing trade tensions.
Carney’s second visit to Washington comes ahead of next year’s scheduled review of the 2020 trade pact, which was enacted during Trump’s first term. The agreement allows most Canadian and Mexican goods to enter the United States tariff-free, but Trump signaled again that he wants to reshape it to further benefit U.S. industries.
“We could renegotiate it, and that would be good, or we can just do different deals,” Trump told reporters. “We might make deals that are better for the individual countries.”
Carney, who succeeded Justin Trudeau last year, sought to ease fears of a trade rupture, saying the two nations remain economically interdependent despite policy friction. “There are areas where we compete,” Carney said, “but there are more areas where we are stronger together.”
The U.S. president described relations between the neighboring nations as marked by a “natural conflict,” a characterization Carney politely rejected. “We have mutual love,” Trump added, before joking that Canada could become “the 51st state.”
The light-hearted tone belied growing concern among Canadian officials and businesses about Trump’s tariffs and threats to withdraw from the pact. Section 232 tariffs — including 50% duties on steel and aluminum — have unsettled Canadian exporters and drawn criticism from both sides of the border.
Frank McKenna, former Canadian ambassador to the U.S., called the current state of relations “the lowest point in decades.” He said ordinary Canadians and business leaders alike were showing “an outright rebellion” against Trump’s trade posture.
Still, Canada remains America’s largest trading partner. Nearly $2.5 billion in goods and services cross the border each day, with Canada serving as the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. The two countries also cooperate closely on energy, defense and law enforcement.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc described the talks as “positive,” adding that Ottawa remains hopeful for “a quick resolution on steel and aluminum.”
Vice President JD Vance later hosted Carney for dinner, according to an official familiar with the matter, as both sides continued discussions about stabilizing North America’s most important economic alliance.
