Fact-based journalism that sparks the Canadian conversation

Articles Business Environment Health Politics Arts & Culture Society

Special Series Hope You’re Well For the Love of the Game Living Rooms In Other Worlds: A Space Exploration Terra Cognita More special series >

For the Love of the Game

In Other Worlds: A Space Exploration

More special series >

Events The Walrus Talks The Walrus Video Room The Walrus Leadership Roundtables The Walrus Leadership Forums Article Club

The Walrus Video Room

The Walrus Leadership Roundtables

The Walrus Leadership Forums

Subscribe Renew your subscription Change your address Magazine Issues Newsletters Podcasts

Renew your subscription

The Walrus Lab Hire The Walrus Lab Amazon First Novel Award

Amazon First Novel Award

Stop Panicking about CUSMA. Canada’s Trade Future Isn’t as Dire as It Looks

Trump can talk tough, but supply chains still bind North America together

A disturbing effect of the Trump era is how the most routine bureaucratic exercises become freighted with existential panic. Case in point: the mandatory review of the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement, set to begin in a few weeks. Signed in 2018 to replace the earlier North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), CUSMA is the playbook that allows North America to function as a deeply integrated market rather than three separate ones. It establishes common rules for everything from auto manufacturing to agricultural exports.

Despite having negotiated it himself, Donald Trump has attacked the CUSMA deal relentlessly. He has slapped tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, openly mocked our sovereignty, and declared that Washington may no longer need the pact. The drumbeat of reporting over the coming sit-down with US officials might have you believing we are headed for gladiatorial combat, and not besuited teams working out the fine print of customs classifications and supply chain logistics.

In this world, Pascal Chan, who helps lead the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, has emerged as a kind of trade whisperer, translating the more complicated, anxiety-ridden debates about our economic relationship with the US.

With the CUSMA nerves running high, I called Chan over Zoom to ask how we should be thinking about what happens next. Our exchange has been edited for clarity.

What has surprised me is how hostile the US has been heading into this review. Their message is basically a middle finger. Maybe we can start with how you understand this moment. What, right now, is the state of play?

Around here we use the metaphor of shadowboxing. We’ve seen a number of threats from the US president over the course of the past year and a half. Some materialize. Some remain words on Truth Social. At different moments, the administration has fixated on electric vehicles, the use of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, fentanyl, border crossings, even the ad Ontario premier Doug Ford ran during the Super Bowl. A lot of these things are raised as irritants, then become conditions that supposedly need to be addressed before broader negotiations can proceed. But with the sudden shifts the negotiators have had to contend with, it’s difficult to know what’s real. From a shadowboxing perspective, you can stand in front of the mirror and work on doubling the jab straight right, left foot to the body. But if you don’t even know if you’re facing a righty or a lefty, it’s going to make it pretty tough to formulate a game plan, much less execute.

What is the game plan?

You build the team. We’ve got Mark Wiseman as Canada’s ambassador to the US, and we’ve got Janice Charette as the chief trade negotiator to the US, underlined by her experience as clerk of the Privy Council as well as secretary to the cabinet. That means she has a comprehensive understanding of how the various federal government departments fit into the puzzle, along with a pre-existing reporting relationship with so many of the heads of........

© The Walrus