With the deadline for renewal or review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico CUSMA Agreement approaching on Wednesday, 1 July, U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, expressed his belief that officials were far from reaching a conclusion.
They weren’t anywhere close to announcing any type of framework or interim agreement, Hoekstra shared with CTV News chief political correspondent Vassy Kapelos during a wide-ranging broadcast exclusive interview.
Hoekstra opined that the matter was now in their side’s hands. It’s likely to be the U.S. president, so he believed that on the Canadian side, it may be the prime minister. The focus was on determining what the next steps were likely to be besides the direction they were headed.
The trilateral trade deal, signed during U.S. President Donald Trump’s 1st term, reached its important deadline on Wednesday, 1st July ’26. Officials of all 3 countries were expected to notify their counterparts whether they had intentions to renew CUSMA for a further 16-year period or agree to an annual review process.
Canada & Mexico have both already formally declared that they seek another 16-year extension of CUSMA, although the U.S. position remained unclear.
Canadian officials try to allay concerns about the state of negotiations. This included Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S., Mark Wiseman, who suggested last week that everybody should ‘take a breath & relax’ as Trump once again slammed the agreement.
At the G7 Leaders’ Summit in France midway through last month, Trump said he would rather leave CUSMA unsigned to have it immediately terminated. However, during the same exchange with reporters, Trump also signalled he may sign the deal.
When Hoekstra was asked whether Trump had conveyed to him his current position on the trilateral trade deal, Hoekstra said that he may leave it up to the president to ‘outline with clarity exactly where Trump’s when Trump’s ready & prepared to initiate an announcement.
