July 1 date for CUSMA review a 'checkpoint, it's not a cliff,' says Canada's chief negotiator

Canada's chief merchandise negotiant says the July 1 date stamp to critique the compass north American trade pact shouldn't be viewed as a hard deadline — noting that some trade points won't be entirely hashed out by that date.

"There's a lot of focus on July 1, which is kind of a checkpoint — it's not a cliff. It's not determinative of the future of our trade relationship," Janice Charette said during a Canadian Chamber of Commerce summit in Ottawa on Tuesday.

This is the first time Charette has spoken publicly since Prime Minister Mark Carney tapped the former Privy Council clerk to head of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) talks in February.

CUSMA, which was first negotiated during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term in office, is up for mandatory review this year.

The text of the agreement says July 1 is the date the three ​countries need to ​approve a renewal ⁠of the existing agreement or signal their intention to exit the pact, but that process can take up to 10 years.

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Charette said Tuesday that she hopes to have a number of issues worked out by July 1, but that there are likely still some issues that will need to be addressed after that date.

"I don't think we should expect … that necessarily we're going to have everything resolved with a bow ready to go by July 1. It's really important, I think, to focus on getting a comprehensive solution, not necessarily a fast solution," she told the Ottawa crowd.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has also previously indicated that not all trade issues are likely to be hashed out by July.

"We aren't probably going to be able to resolve all issues by July 1, but I think we are on track to resolve many of them and to move as quickly as we can," Greer said earlier this month.

Greer met with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday, according to a joint statement released by Greer's office. That statement indicated that the U.S. And Mexico will hold an "official bilateral negotiating round" in late May.

A date to start similar official negotiations with Canada has yet to be set, but government officials insist they've had ongoing conversations with U.S. Counterparts.

‘A lot of work to do’ on talks with U.S., says Minister LeBlanc

"The Americans were going to start somewhere. They've started those technical discussions with the Mexicans. They had a longer list and a different list of issues to discuss with the Mexicans than they do with Canada," LeBlanc told host David Cochrane.

"We fully expect to get to that stage as well, but we're going to get to that stage when we're comfortable that the outline of a deal that's in Canada's interest is attainable."

Charette said Tuesday that based on talks she's had with Greer she expects the U.S. To work out some details with Canada and Mexico separately.

"There's a bilateral piece as well as a trilateral [piece] — my counterpart in the U.S. Has described this to me as a kind of snap-on Lego bilateral piece to the underlying framework [of CUSMA]," she said.

Charette's comments come the same day that Carney named a new advisory committee on Canada-U.S. Trade.

The list includes experts, industry and union leaders and retired high-profile politicians, such as former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole and former Conservative cabinet minister Lisa Raitt.

According to a government statement, the committee will serve as a forum where members can develop strategy for how Canada should approach its economic relationship with the U.S.

A raft of U.S. Sectoral tariffs on Canadian exports remain in place, including on steel, aluminum, softwood lumber and the auto sector.

Greer has suggested in recent months that Canada will need to accept that tariffs will be a part of any deal with the administration.

LeBlanc said Tuesday that the U.S. Views the CUSMA review and talks around the sectoral tariffs as two separate discussions. But he added that the Canadian team has insisted both need to be hashed out simultaneously.

"We've said … in any conversations we've had with the Americans, that our ability to make significant progress on the sectoral tariffs is essential for us, to get to a conversation around the CUSMA review process," the minister said.

Senior writer

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