Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau went into his first phone call with a newly re-elected Donald Trump aware that the U.S. president likely was looking to reopen the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement—just a few weeks before he first threatened devastating economy-wide tariffs.
A briefing note prepared ahead of the phone conversation between Trudeau and Trump on Nov. 6 of last year said the president was unlikely to wait for a formal 2026 review of the continental trade pact, also called CUSMA. Canada’s preference would be to keep the review as “narrow and targeted as possible,” the note said.
