US wants to avoid congressional vote on trade deal, Canada's Carney Says

Brian Platt, Bloomberg News on Jun 13, 2026

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Trump administration officials have been clear that they don’t want to trigger a vote in Congress by changing the “fundamental architecture” of the North American free trade deal.

Carney said the three countries in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are currently holding separate, bilateral talks on a variety of trade irritants in part because no side wants to make sweeping changes to the existing deal.

The prime minister said all those discussions are happening “in the context of maintaining the foundation” of USMCA, which President Donald Trump negotiated and which was passed by Congress during his first term. If the deal were to be “fundamentally changed, then that would have to be approved by the relevant legislatures,” Carney told reporters from Ireland, where he’s on a visit before heading to the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in France.

“The U.S. has been clear that they do not want to go to Congress to change the fundamental architecture,” he said.

The U.S., Canada and Mexico do almost $2 trillion in annual trade with each other, and USMCA-compliant goods have largely been exempt from Trump’s barrage of tariffs — a fact Carney pointed out again in his remarks on Saturday. Still, the White House has placed new duties on products such as autos and steel from its two neighbors, straining ties and disrupting supply chains.

American and Mexican negotiators have been holding formal, scheduled rounds of talks on trade. Canada has not yet begun that process, which Carney has attributed to the fact that the U.S. simply has more trade issues to discuss with Mexico.

Asked whether he’s worried the U.S. and Mexico could strike a bilateral deal on tariffs that sets a difficult precedent for Canada, Carney said his government is in regular communication with that of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

“We share perspectives, information, we share objectives,” Carney said. “We’re both committed as much as possible in the new trading environment to an integrated North American market.”

On Thursday, he’d said Canada is seeking its own bilateral deal with Mexico.

He also said there are still active discussions happening between Canadian and American trade officials, even if they aren’t formalized in negotiating rounds as with Mexico.

Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister leading U.S. trade talks, was in Washington on June 2 to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and they will talk again at the G7.

LeBlanc and Greer have seen positive movement on several issues, Carney said, without providing further details. “Lots to do, but progress being made,” he said.