Trump’s point man on trade floats separate deals with Canada and Mexico

U.S. President Donald Trump’s lead trade negotiator says the administration is considering breaking up the three-way free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, moving toward separate deals instead.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Wednesday that the Trump administration is keeping all options on the table for the future of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) as it comes up for renewal in 2026.

But Greer, who plays a key role in all trade negotiations, including the looming review of CUSMA, is laying out a strong case for separate bilateral deals with the country’s northern and southern neighbours — a move that would end 30 years of North America having a unified free trade agreement.

"Our economic relationship with Canada is very, very different than our economic relationship with Mexico," Greer told an event held by the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think-tank focused on international affairs.

"The labour situation's different. The import-export profile is different. The rule of law is different. So it makes sense to talk about things separately with Canada and Mexico," he said.

All three countries must indicate by July 1 of next year whether they want to extend the agreement, renegotiate its terms or let it expire. Greer must provide a report to U.S. Congress 180 days before that deadline — by Jan. 2 — that would signal the administration’s intentions.

Already talking separately to Canada and Mexico

He didn’t drop any hints during Wednesday’s conversation about which way the White House is leaning when it comes to CUSMA.

"Could it be exited? Yeah, it could be exited. Could it be revised? Yes. Could it be renegotiated? Yes," Greer said. "All of those things are on the table."

However, he strongly hinted there was potential for splitting the agreement into separate bilateral deals with Canada and Mexico.

"We're already talking to them separately," Greer said.

"I have not had a meeting this year where I sat with Canada and Mexico in a room, and we sat together and talked about USMCA," he added, using the U.S. acronym for the agreement.

Greer’s comments echo remarks made to Politico last week, when he said he discussed the possibility of separate negotiations with the U.S. president just recently.

"The president’s view is he only wants deals that are a good deal. The reason why we built a review period into USMCA was in case we needed to revise it, review it or exit it," he told the outlet.

It also comes on the heels of a public consultation held in Washington last week in which industry after industry extolled the virtues of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement and urged the Trump administration not to abandon it.

And Greer appeared before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, telling senators that one of his key goals is tightening CUSMA’s "rules of origin" — the nitty-gritty details in the agreement that determine whether a product qualifies for tariff-free access to all three countries based on its content.

Several U.S. industries accuse some Canadian firms of exploiting CUSMA’s rules of origin by putting cheap content from China into their products, then selling them in the U.S. under the deal’s preferential terms.

Greer told the Atlantic Council event that rules of origin are a topic that may fit best in a three-way deal with Canada and Mexico.

And he suggested critical minerals and alignment of external trade policies could also be part of a trilateral agreement — a sign he isn’t completely casting aside the prospect of a deal between the three countries.