Carney, Trump and Sheinbaum talk trade at 2026 World Cup draw in Washington D.C.

By Canadian Press on December 5, 2025.

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Mark Carney met privately Friday with U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in Washington, D.C., with no staff in the room.

The meeting, which happened at the Kennedy Center following the FIFA World Cup Draw, lasted about 50 minutes.

Trump said earlier in the day the three leaders would talk about trade during their meeting and that he gets along well with both Carney and Sheinbaum.

This was the first private meeting between Carney and Trump since the U.S. president abruptly ended trade talks in October in response to an anti-tariff ad sponsored by the Ontario government.

Trade relations between the three nations were upended earlier this year by Trump’s sweeping sectoral tariffs.

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA, has shielded Canada and Mexico from broad-based tariffs, but the agreement enters its mandatory review period next year.

Trump said Wednesday he sees the deal expiring next year and mused about letting it die.

The three countries are co-hosting the 2026 World Cup, but the shadow of CUSMA negotiations is likely to hang over the event.

Canada and Mexico have taken different approaches to the second Trump administration.

Carney had two cordial meetings with the president at the White House. Friday’s gathering will be the first in-person meeting between Trump and Sheinbaum.

Trump boosted duties on Canada to 35 per cent in August but has continued to give extensions to Mexico, which is being hit by 25 per cent duties. Both countries are also being slammed by the president’s separate tariffs on steel, aluminum, automobiles, lumber and copper.

Mexico and Canada have been searching for tariff off-ramps while making the case for duty-free continental trade as Trump threatens to pull the U.S. out of CUSMA.

The CUSMA review, which formally begins in July, boils down to a three-way choice for each country: renew the deal for another 16 years, withdraw from the agreement, or signal both non-renewal and non-withdrawal — which essentially would keep negotiations going.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Politico this week Trump could withdraw the U.S. from the agreement and raised the idea of negotiating with Canada and Mexico separately.

Greer’s office held public hearings in Washington this week on the future of the trade agreement. Canadian industry and business groups testified about CUSMA’s importance and called for a timely review.

A news release from the Business Council of Canada said its president and CEO Goldy Hyder told the hearing “the livelihoods of American, Mexican and Canadian workers and their families depend on the continued, certain and predictable operation of (CUSMA).”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2025.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press