By Paul Vieira
OTTAWA--The U.S.-led review of the current trilateral North American trade pact will likely incorporate talks on a bilateral deal to ease U.S. tariffs on key industrial sectors, says the Canadian minister in charge of the country's trading relationship with Washington.
Dominic LeBlanc told a Toronto audience Thursday he expects bilateral talks to unfold alongside a review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, known as USMCA. LeBlanc cited, for instance, talks last fall between Ottawa and Washington to ease tariffs on key sectors like steel, aluminum and automobiles, which President Trump later terminated due to anger over a Canadian ad that questioned the use of tariffs.
LeBlanc said Canada wants the U.S. to recommit to a trilateral trade pact. Furthermore, he added, "there have always been bilateral arrangements as between the three countries. That's not new… [And] we need to get a bilateral deal with the United States to take pressure off the sectoral tariffs."
The sectoral tariffs, of up to 50%, have squeezed Canada's manufacturing sector. Nonfarm payrolls data issued Thursday indicated that factories shed workers in December, for a year-over-year decline of 2.6%.
LeBlanc said he expects to meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in the coming days. Greer told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Tuesday that Canada will have to live with U.S. tariffs as part of a revised USMCA.
"If Canada wants to agree that we can have some level of higher tariff on them while they open up their markets to us on things like dairy and other things, then that's a helpful conversation," Greer said.
Earlier this week, LeBlanc told Canadian senators he remained optimistic about USMCA's future, noting that the White House provided an exemption to a new U.S. tariff, of up to 15%, so long as the goods entering the U.S. comply with the trilateral pact. The Bank of Canada has labeled the pending review of USMCA as a key risk to the economic outlook.
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 26, 2026 14:20 ET (19:20 GMT)
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