Donald Trump, Mark Carney and Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum will 'keep working together' on trade after meeting

They took a group photo, and all three leaders remained throughout the whole thing, but the Prime Minister’s Office said there were no political staff in attendance during the closed-door meeting at the Kennedy Center. 

In a summary provided an hour after it ended, Carney spokesperson Audrey Champoux said only that, “Today was about the FIFA World Cup 26 and Canada’s leadership and opportunities as we welcome the world as a co-host.”

“The prime minister had many occasions for constructive discussions with both President Sheinbaum and President Trump. In their principal discussion, the three leaders met for approximately 45 minutes and they’ve agreed to keep working together on CUSMA (Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement).”

It was unclear to what extent the leaders drilled down on the tariffs Trump has imposed on key sectors of the Canadian and Mexican economies — on steel, aluminum, copper, autos and lumber — along with broader so-called “border emergency” tariffs (from 10 to 35 per cent in Canada’s case) on goods that don’t comply with the continental free trade deal.

However the indication that the leaders will “keep working together on CUSMA” is a positive sign, given Trump’s earlier comments this week that he may let the trilateral North American trade agreement “expire.”

Flavio Volpe, head of the Canadian Auto Parts Manufacturers Association, said it “sounds like a vote of confidence of sorts in the only formal, scheduled stakeholder engagement process of this whole trade war, this week’s USMCA hearings” that were held in Washington ahead of the trade pact’s review next year.

Goldy Hyder, head of the Business Council of Canada, said “good.”

“Sounds like a 0-0 ending to a soccer game,” Hyder said, adding “will take it.”

Carney’s office had downplayed expectations of a trilateral meeting, and it continued to deny a three-way meeting was in the works, even after Trump had publicly addressed it, right up until it happened. 

On his way into the event, Trump told reporters he expected to meet with “both” leaders sometime afterward and said, “We’ll discuss trade. We get along very well.”

During the splashy livestreamed FIFA draw, the three leaders sat together with their spouses in a VIP box, occasionally leaving and re-entering, for nearly two hours, wearing  broad smiles and laughing together. 

Trump appeared in high spirits after accepting an inaugural peace prize from FIFA, the global soccer federation, sticking around longer than scheduled with his North American counterparts, and standing to shimmy his trademark dance move when the Village People performed “YMCA,” Trump’s campaign tune, as the sports event drew to a close.

Carney and Sheinbaum declined what appeared to be Trump’s invitation to dance, with Carney offering an open-palmed deferral to the president.

Hyder said he was delighted to see the images of the leaders getting along at the venue, saying it was “symbolically a good visual” that “gives some hope that we are on the same team and while we have issues to work through, we will eventually do that because no trade agreement is not an alternative.”

The U.S. president “is all about personal relationships. It is better to be engaged with him than disengaged,” Hyder added. “This was a fortuitous event, given the stalled nature of discussions on tariffs and the unfortunate circumstances around them.

Hyder was part of a joint presentation along with American business leaders at public hearings held in Washington this week as U.S. lawmakers begin formal consultations ahead of the review of the trade agreement, and presented a united front in defence of the deal.

He said it was “great” to see, and be a part of, “a chorus” of Canadian, Mexican and American stakeholders who praised the agreement as one of “tremendous economic value to the American economy bringing about jobs and growth. The fact that it’s happening is a testament to the importance the administration is giving to the process of reviewing and renewing the USMCA given it’s a 270-day exercise.”

Other stakeholders in Canada Friday were equally keeping a close eye on events as they unfolded in Washington Friday.

Carney “looked confident in his approach with the president, while acting like a partner on the FIFA project and staging,” Volpe said.

“So much of how the White House moves these days is dependent on stage presence. They looked comfortable together and I am sure the closed-door chat was productive.”