Canada, Mexico vow to improve economic ties

Leaders promise to boost trade relations amid U.S. tariff threats ahead of negotiations.

- By MEGAN JANETSKY AND Ros GILLIES

CANADIAN Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum appear in Mexico City.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Claudia Sheinbaum promised to strengthen trade relations in the face of U.S. tariff threats and pushed to keep the most important free trade agreement in the Western Hemisphere alive in the lead-up to negotiations next year.

Their meeting came Thursday during Carney’s first visit to Mexico as Canada’s leader and at a moment of economic tension for the region. The two leaders shook hands and strode side by side into the presidential palace in Mexico City earlier in the day. Despite not being present, U.S. President Trump and wider economic uncertainty were front and center in the visit.

“North America is the economic envy of the world, is the most competitive economic region of the world, and part of the reason for that is the cooperation between Canada and Mexico,” Carney said in a news conference following the meeting. “We complement the United States. We make them stronger. We are all stronger together.”

Countries ‘share a common threat’

Key to Carney and Sheinbaum’s meeting was the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact, or USMCA, which is up for review in 2026.

Decades of free trade among the three nations has inextricably intertwined their economies: More than 75% of Canada’s exports and more than 80% of Mexico’s go to the U.S.

Trump's ongoing and constantly evolving trade threats have put the countries’ political and business leaders on edge, as many scramble for more stable trade alternatives.