(AFP) – US President Donald Trump met Friday with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, with the talks partly focused on the future of a North American free trade deal. The leaders met in Washington on the sidelines of the draw for the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
“The three leaders met for approximately 45 minutes,” Carney spokesperson Audrey Champoux said in an email. “They’ve agreed to keep working together on CUSMA,” she added, using the Canadian acronym for the existing free trade deal between the three countries, which Americans call the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The USMCA deal was struck during Trump’s first term.
Trump has slapped steep tariffs on exports from Canada and Mexico that do not fall under the USMCA, which Washington is seeking to renegotiate next year. Friday’s talks were the first between Trump and Sheinbaum. Carney has visited the White House twice since Trump’s return to power, but it will be his first encounter with Trump — except for a brief meeting at a summit in South Korea — since the US leader suspended trade talks in a bizarre row over an anti-tariff ad.
Trump has also threatened further punishment if they fail to curb cross-border migration and drug trafficking — and irked Sheinbaum by saying he would be “OK” with air strikes on Mexico to tackle traffickers. She has vowed the strikes will never happen. Canada also was outraged by Trump’s calls earlier this year for it to become the 51st US state.
Carney drew criticism at recent G20 meetings in South Africa when, asked by a reporter when he last spoke to Trump, answered, “Who cares?” The three countries launched their joint World Cup bid in 2017 during Trump’s first term in the White House. Trump said Friday that the United States had worked closely with Mexico and Canada over the tournament, adding “the coordination and friendship and relationship has been outstanding.”
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