Canada, Mexico to work together in face of Trump’s US tariff threats

Canada and Mexico have promised to deepen ties and coordinate their approach during a forthcoming review with Washington of the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Mexico on Thursday, where he met his counterpart, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, to discuss economic and security ties.

In a joint news conference, the two leaders said they had agreed to expand ties between their countries and were committed to their three-way trade partnership with the US.

Sheinbaum said she was optimistic the two countries would continue to work together with reciprocal “respect”.

“Mexico and Canada will continue walking together, with mutual respect and with a certainty that cooperation is the path to overcome any challenge,” she said.

Carney said North America is the “economic envy of the world”, in part due to trade cooperation between Canada and Mexico.

“I have full confidence, and so does the president [Sheinbaum], that we can find the adjustments needed to reinforce competition and competitiveness in our region,” he said.

While both Sheinbaum and Carney have been attempting to reach side trade deals with US President Donald Trump, on Thursday, they insisted they were not in competition with each other.

“We will move forward together,” Carney said.

Public consultations on the future of the USMCA began this week in advance of a review to be conducted by each country next year.

Canada has recently struggled to renegotiate its existing agreements with Washington, amid growing trade and political tensions following comments by Trump on wanting his northern neighbour to join the US as its 51st state.

Trump has been similarly belligerent to his southern neighbour, issuing an executive order which directed US government agencies to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” as the “Gulf of America”.

In August, Trump was reported to have signed a secret executive order directing the military to attack Mexican drug cartels, forcing Sheinbaum to respond to concerns about direct US military intervention in Mexico.

“There will be no invasion of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said at the time.

Both countries have been targeted by Trump in his trade war, with 50 percent tariffs imposed on Canadian steel and 25 percent on some Mexican pharmaceuticals. Mexico has also been hit with another 25 percent “fentanyl tariff”, over what he says is the flow of drugs across Mexican borders and into the US.

Mexico and Canada are the US’s largest and second-largest trading partners, respectively, while the US is the top trading partner for both countries.

Trade between Mexico and Canada was valued at $40.5bn in 2024. Canada’s trade relationship with the US, by contrast, was valued at $924.4bn.

Carney’s trip is the first bilateral visit by a Canadian prime minister to Mexico in eight years, and Canadian officials briefing reporters described ties as excellent but conceded they could be closer.