Canada-U.S. trade talks are restarting. Here's what's at stake

For the number one clip since U.S. Chairman Donald ruff called away negotiations last October — ostensibly over a TV ad — Prime Minister Mark Carney's point man on trade will meet face to face with his White House counterpart.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., on Friday to meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The meeting comes at a pivotal moment for the $1.3-trillion Cdn annual trading relationship between the two countries.

While Trump continues to impose punishing tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, automobiles, softwood lumber, copper products, kitchen cabinets and more, the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is up for renegotiation. The timing means Canada's efforts to get rid of those tariffs targeting key industrial sectors will be wrapped into the CUSMA talks.

That gives the U.S. Negotiating leverage for the many changes it wants made to the trade deal, including greater access to Canada's dairy market and an end to rules that force U.S. Streaming platforms to run Canadian content and fund domestic production.

Hovering over the talks: U.S. Threats to impose new tariffs to replace the ones struck down two weeks ago by the U.S. Supreme Court, to break up CUSMA into separate deals with Canada and Mexico, and to terminate the agreement — a move that could expose all Canadian exports to Trump's blanket tariffs.

Despite that, the fact that Greer and LeBlanc are now holding face-to-face talks is significant, said Eric Miller, a Canada-U.S. Trade expert and president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, a Washington-based consulting firm.

Trump cancelled talks with Canada over the steel and aluminum tariffs after an Ontario government advertisement featuring an anti-tariff speech by the late Ronald Reagan aired during U.S. Broadcasts of baseball's World Series last fall,

Since then, Trump has threatened to:

He has yet to follow through on any of those threats.

Canada needs to just accept increased tariffs, U.S. Says

Miller said the resumption of talks now means the U.S. Needs to start providing Canada with some specifics of what it wants from the CUSMA negotiations, putting Canada in a better position to respond.

"Of course, Canada will have views on all of those issues and will be looking to preserve as much of the agreement as possible," he said.

LeBlanc arrives in Washington with new Carney-appointed leadership steering the negotiations with the White House.

The prime minister named Janice Charette, who served as head of Canada's public service during both the Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau governments, to be Canada's chief trade negotiator with the U.S.

Mark Wiseman, a global investment banker, pension fund manager and friend of Carney, is Canada's new ambassador in Washington.

Both posts were held by Kirsten Hillman until she stepped down last month.

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