{"id":75210,"date":"2026-06-30T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/06\/30\/cusma-could-raise-the-cost-of-free-trade-for-canada\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T10:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:00:52","slug":"cusma-could-raise-the-cost-of-free-trade-for-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/06\/30\/cusma-could-raise-the-cost-of-free-trade-for-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"CUSMA could raise the cost of free trade for Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<header aria-label=\"Beginning of Article\" class=\"article-header article-header--feature\">\n<nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\" data-aqa=\"nav-breadcrumb\">\n<p>Breadcrumb Trail Links<\/p>\n<ol class=\"breadcrumbs__items list-unstyled\">\n<li class=\"breadcrumbs__item\">Economy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<div class=\"article-header__detail\">\n<div class=\"article-header__detail__texts\">\n<p class=\"article-subtitle\">U.S. demands for concessions on CUSMA are stirring up painful memories in communities like Wallaceburg, Ont., where some wonder if the price Canada already paid for free trade is being exacted anew<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<p><span class=\"published-date__since\">Published Jun 30, 2026<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 <span class=\"updated-date__since\">Last updated 0\u00a0minutes ago<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 <span class=\"published-date__word-count\">15 minute read<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-meta__bottom\">\n<div class=\"bookmark-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"popover\" data-aqa=\"popover\" data-click-to-appear=\"True\" data-container=\"\" data-container-offset=\"\" data-no-style=\"\" data-popover-component=\"\" data-position=\"top\" data-sticky=\"\" data-tail-offset=\"200\" data-tail-position=\"right\"><button class=\"popover__trigger bookmark-button\"><span class=\"save-article-button save-article-button--default\" title=\"Save article\" data-article-id=\"35d6beff-8878-4c67-bfef-502c1744813a\" data-evt-skip-click=\"true\"\/><\/button><\/p>\n<div aria-describedby=\"popover-desc-popover-bookmark\" class=\"popover__content\" hidden=\"\" role=\"dialog\">\n<div class=\"popover__content__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"popover__content__text\" id=\"popover-desc-popover-bookmark\">\n<div class=\"bookmark__popover__content\">\n<p>You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><button class=\"popover__content__close\" data-evt-skip-click=\"true\" title=\"Close\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\" viewbox=\"0 0 12 12\" class=\"icon--close\" height=\"12\" version=\"1.1\" width=\"12\"><polygon points=\"12 0.95 11.05 0 6 5.05 0.95 0 0 0.95 5.05 6 0 11.05 0.95 12 6 6.95 11.05 12 12 11.05 6.95 6\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"featured-image\" data-aqa=\"featured-image\"><picture class=\"featured-image__ratio\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;h=675&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=vOZLV6KQ2Oh-MYlgnWMTVw,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;h=1350&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=divhkbTO2ILOaib0JSP2sQ 2x\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;h=675&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=ZBDxUkDrnobFhJjNHYW9ag,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;h=1350&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=LJKQvFDpMrIsDHysPSv5ZQ 2x\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;h=432&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=f3NpsnaKuaLxYASOXZ9ONw,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;h=864&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=axFhUrT198uOCGPAVeXvgg 2x\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;h=432&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=Zz3eHk5ppX82C9-yMuslUA,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;h=864&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=duQxmansvQ_MoUGVZnp1CA 2x\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;h=563&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=vRlogOv0geaHTktJUFHWvA,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/libbey-plant-gs0629-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;h=1125&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=8TAZ5lh1CTk0SHLl_vsPBg 2x\" type=\"image\/webp\"><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<h2 class=\"visually-hidden\">Article content<\/h2>\n<p>Traffic jams. That\u2019s one of the first things that John Gardiner thinks about when he recalls what Wallaceburg, Ont., was like in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first moved to Wallaceburg in 1985, there were roughly 9,000 manufacturing jobs in a town of 11,000 people,\u201d said Gardiner, an author who worked for decades as a journalist and publisher in the once-thriving community across Lake St. Clair from Detroit. \u201cThe town rocked 24 hours a day because of the shift work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"ad__section-border ad__section-border--story article-content__ad-group ad_counter_2\">\n<section aria-describedby=\"advertisment9579130234511219506402124932055040\" class=\"ad\">\n<p>Advertisement 2<\/p>\n<div 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data-account-id=\"b9d3df2fccd108b5eff3c44f573b2cd6\" data-sailthru-personalization-engine=\"\" data-sailthru-personalization-engine-component=\"\"\/>\n<div class=\"m-x-0 p-x-0 col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-12 flex-align-justify-center\" data-auth-component=\"\" id=\"auth-screen-form\">\n<div class=\"identity-screen-form--active w-full flex-align-justify-center\">\n<div class=\"identity-screen-form identity-screen__content w-full\">\n<h2 class=\"blocker-title\">Sign In or Create an Account<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"identity-divider__line\"\/><span class=\"identity-divider__text\">or<\/span><span class=\"identity-divider__line\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer class=\"identity-footer identity-screen__content m-x-0 p-x-0 col-sm-6 col-md-12\"\/><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>That started to change in 1999, when Libbey Canada Glass Co., a century-old manufacturer that had earned Wallaceburg the moniker Glasstown, closed its doors after its Ohio-based parent company abruptly announced it would shift production to other factories in the United States and Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"js-widget-content article-content__widget-group article-content__widget-group--content-slot6 article-content__widget-group--newsletter-slot\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-widget__new-story-page fp-energyinsider background--primary-light-gradient\" data-target-list=\"FP West Energy Insider\" aria-labelledby=\"FPWest:EnergyInsider9688807158018237132381430489284608\" data-account-id=\"b9d3df2fccd108b5eff3c44f573b2cd6\" data-aqa=\"widget-newsletter\" data-newsletter=\"single\" data-newsletter-component=\"\" data-widget=\"newsletter\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-new-story-page-template\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-widget__header__new-story-page\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-widget__banner__new-story-page\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"FP West: Energy Insider\" 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If you don&#8217;t see it, please check your junk folder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-widget__text__new-story-page newsletter__feedback--last\">The next issue of FP West: Energy Insider will soon be in your inbox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"newsletter-widget__text__new-story-page js-submit-error\" id=\"submitErrorFP West Energy Insider\" hidden=\"\" style=\"margin-top:8px\">We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>The move threw about 500 people out of work. Some of the newly unemployed Canadians had been at Libbey for more than 30 years, starting in their teens without finishing high school. Others were second- and third-generation employees.<\/p>\n<p>The Libbey Glass closure, which came a decade after the implementation of the initial Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1989, was the most notable among a slew of factories and plants that would disappear from the town. A list of 18 closures compiled by the Wallaceburg District Museum put published job losses at around 1,500, but locals like Gardiner peg the number even higher.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn its day, Wallaceburg was the manufacturing hub of Southwestern Ontario. All of that is pretty much gone now,\u201d he said. \u201cThe town is much quieter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embedded-image article-content--full_page\" data-aqa=\"embed-image\"><picture class=\"embedded-image__ratio\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=JqjcxDrosuFa5FLfE4y9Yw,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=-6c6tj2NDBbMbIDNWatiyA 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=JcAZXsjcmacSE_UkpVhhGg,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=R6Vbiw8PqWh4tSnWe1qz7A 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=oiG9Mh0NZnXu6G31VEvLOw,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=Vn5_9VSAG3tx3m6AZbs48w 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=UgJYgWeWw_iVGJSAl8zgFg,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=eoI_EfIgPQknn80xDmG88w 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=Wm6WQCOM7I1RaObK5hiYtg,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=58oeDnee8DJgKcJkziXi9A 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Wallaceburg Ontario\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=jbahWA-pRKcojQF7bHt75g\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=jbahWA-pRKcojQF7bHt75g,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wallaceburg-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;sig=Sfgl4uyluOasms4G0HCqeQ 2x\" height=\"675\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"image-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">An image from a 1966 postcard of Wallaceburg. The southwestern Ontario town was a mighty manufacturing hub until the Free Trade Agreement came into force.<\/span> <span class=\"credit\">Photo by Southwestern Ontario digital archive<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Free trade with the U.S. is almost universally viewed by economists today as having been a win for the Canadian economy. But the broader gains came with costs for Wallaceburg and others towns like it across the country, particularly those built around manufacturing.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was good for the economy overall, but \u2026 there were losers, and they were longtime losers,\u201d said Dan Ciuriak, an international trade economist and consultant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor many people, there was a lifetime cost.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"article-content--column\">\n<p>For many people, there was a lifetime cost<\/p>\n<p>Dan Ciuriak, an international trade economist and consultant<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-async=\"\">Now, with a July 1 review of the trilateral Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) set to launch and the current U.S. administration pressing to revamp the terms of trade \u2014 including threatening to claw back jobs from Canada in industries such as autos and aluminum \u2014 there is a sense that the price Canadians already paid for access to the U.S. market is being exacted again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the things that we put in place to participate in the global factory are now being undermined,\u201d Ciuriak said. \u201cThe pain that we bore to join that world is going to be compounded by a new pain from undoing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Leap of faith\u2019<\/h2>\n<p data-async=\"\">When the U.S.-Canada free trade deal was first struck, even its proponents acknowledged it was a \u201cleap of faith\u201d \u2014 a term adopted by former Liberal cabinet minister Donald MacDonald, who led a pivotal 1985 royal commission report that recommended Canada pursue free trade with its much larger southern neighbour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanada would gain several advantages by negotiating a free-trade agreement with the United States,\u201d the commissioners wrote, noting that Canada was already reliant on its most important trading partner. \u201cIt is imperative that Canada reduce both the uncertainty of our access to U.S. markets and the adverse effects that might result from any trade-restrictive measures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>Economic theory dating back to Adam Smith in the 18th century has laid out the case for free trade, with Smith reasoning that trade between countries benefits all when each focuses on goods it can produce most cheaply. Later economists advanced the concept of comparative advantage: even if a country is less efficient at producing all goods than its trading partner, it will still benefit by producing the things it can make most efficiently and trading them. Free trade proponents point out that it expands the size of the available market, with the resulting economies of scale bringing down costs, while added competition forces producers to become more efficient, driving economic growth.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embedded-image article-content--half_width_left\" data-aqa=\"embed-image\"><picture class=\"embedded-image__ratio\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=5xq9P1MecIG-7ZaeWeF1rg,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=PGY1M2f4xkvM0G_G9x_dUw 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=p_6H8BZipAkiBYdjOVXw6w,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=heocVrIuGXhxy16FG-P6gg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=by8A6aaMYAPRqIdwjefWDg,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=oFhtdhTKo1xTi7cfe-VclQ 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=cF9Vj_n1YaaZzavsWuAVhA,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=uXXflFkJp2kOmnEqSPZKKQ 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=HDwMN1jNK0L3bbIPzuQyUQ,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=82tXP6xlOqZv2pPFNSpnIg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Canada exports to U.S.\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=CVRrpCYVrBlOGXL5iYbyPw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=CVRrpCYVrBlOGXL5iYbyPw,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/exports-to-u.s.-2.png?location=half_width_left&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;sig=0zkw4TqYnVH0-wMnUkjTJQ 2x\" height=\"966\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cFree trade allows Canadian producers to sell at higher prices and allows Canadian consumers to buy at lower prices. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d said Daniel Trefler, chair in Competitiveness and Prosperity at the Rotman School of Management.<\/p>\n<p>But free trade also requires faith in the market mechanism, with specific jobs and economic activity migrating to the jurisdictions where they can be done more efficiently overall, imposing costs on both sides as well.<\/p>\n<p>The benefits of free trade to Canada are clear in the numbers.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\">Canada\u2019s merchandise exports to the U.S. had grown more than fivefold to $547.4 billion by 2024 from $101.6 billion in 1989, according to data from Global Affairs Canada. By the early 2000s, the U.S. accounted for 87 per cent of Canada\u2019s global merchandise exports, up from 60 per cent in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"article-content--column\">\n<p>That is equivalent to Canada receiving \u2014 for free \u2014 a bond that pays $20 billion a year<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Trefler, Rotman School of Management<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-async=\"\">Canada\u2019s manufacturing productivity also rose. Trefler\u2019s calculations show that the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement boosted total Canadian manufacturing productivity by 13.8 per cent as exporters increased their sales to the U.S. and expanded their revenue bases. This spurred innovation and the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is equivalent to Canada receiving \u2014 for free \u2014 a bond that pays $20 billion a year,\u201d Trefler said. \u201cThe idea that a single simple policy, tariff reductions, could have such a big impact on the economy is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since 1995, when Mexico was included as a third partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), North America has experienced greater economic growth than any other region globally except East Asia, according to a report published by Bank of Nova Scotia economists last year.<\/p>\n<p>But the costs, at least in the earlier years, were equally apparent.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embedded-image article-content--half_width_right\" data-aqa=\"embed-image\"><picture class=\"embedded-image__ratio\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=yXz02M4tU7WUhB1SsY7Dwg,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=QRw73Si_ezSLh3m-EuUmnA 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=9SKwu6YlqGElzpx8HMX5ZA,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=Bvo_jkz__aXQVlYuRxaRUw 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=SHzUDGIex8G0NkD0awXIJA,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=LKfvr3H2cqxwhH93Hl1qjg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=Zaka_ele05EbuDI3AxFhvQ,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=L6SLs1sr2i8OUP7VZSbS6g 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=xjRyV_poGFOZHdvSvhsCwQ,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=HPjudTUoSbuWlFoMavdJLw 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Regional GDP\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=KKt2W1WLPmUAPxeGIG-giw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=KKt2W1WLPmUAPxeGIG-giw,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/regional-gdp.png?location=half_width_right&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;sig=mj6R7eZL1G-Us7eoBI1QrA 2x\" height=\"937\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>The Free Trade Agreement reduced total manufacturing employment by five per cent, or 100,000 jobs, according to a 2004 paper Trefler wrote, published\u00a0in the American Economic Review. Most of these lost jobs were concentrated in import-competing industries exposed to deep tariff concessions, with one in eight jobs disappearing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis number points to the very large transition costs of moving out of low-end, heavily protected industries,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt reflects the most obvious of the costs associated with trade liberalization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\">Canada\u2019s unemployment rate rose to 11.4 per in 1993 from 7.5 per cent in 1989, a figure Ciuriak says was even worse than it appeared considering the decline in employment participation in the later period.<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\">In Huntingdon, Que., a town of around 2,600 people about an hour\u2019s drive southwest of Montreal, the textile sector once thrived. But a series of shutdowns after the Free Trade Agreement came into effect threw hundreds out of work. Cleyn &amp; Tinker, a Canadian wool manufacturer, shut down five plants in Quebec in the spring of 2004, shifting operations to Burlington, N.C.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"article-content--column\">\n<p>There was definitely a shock, a cost in the short run, but people adjusted to that cost in a way that wasn&#8217;t detectable 16 years down the road<\/p>\n<p>Peter Morrow, University of Toronto<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-async=\"\">In December of that year, another shutdown \u2014 Huntingdon Mills Canada Ltd., a sports textile maker \u2014 shook the town. The mayor estimated the local economy would lose $25 million as a result of the closures, which were blamed in part on a low Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. currency and on increasing competition from China.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>Ottawa tried to help, putting together a multi-million rescue package that included funds relief on the cost of raw materials for the Canadian textile manufacturers and incentives to encourage them to shift into higher value products and markets where they would face less competition.<\/p>\n<p>That aid package was one in a series of government supports put in place at the time of the Free Trade Agreement and its aftermath.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the fallout for certain towns and industries, Canadians ultimately adjusted to the upheaval, according to Peter Morrow, a professor of economics at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embedded-image article-content--full_width\" data-aqa=\"embed-image\"><picture class=\"embedded-image__ratio\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=odWHztYS5Ahj8dx4o4xdmQ,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=M8wnQBCpdhkuEe3aoXOYaw 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=U9MSqyiRgs6TXbdRfFLbYg,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=juk_8NkYNtLNXnxZ3I1udg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=KhDPDNRybyTcyHP1ZK_x-Q,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=DlCXMg-IiH9z2_hAl3xk2Q 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=OqZ17OlBewil-H_KsICZPQ,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=ddeGqlhujDwMuWaQjXT8rQ 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=tKjYPp7Nf4N_YI2J2bwKvw,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=vtwUhvqYTmAsPKp-YeKycg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Quebec wool mill\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=xqAut-BwDrsT5XO_K7gaOQ\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=xqAut-BwDrsT5XO_K7gaOQ,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/trade-agreement-gs0629jpg.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;sig=Ofyy55g0PQGDimNZrP5r5g 2x\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"image-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Pauline Mailloux was one of hundreds of workers who lost their job in 2004 at the Huntingdon Mill plant in Huntingdon, Que., just north of Montreal. A series of shutdowns after the Free Trade Agreement came into effect threw many in the area out of work.<\/span> <span class=\"credit\">Photo by Pierre Obendraug<\/span> \/<span class=\"distributor\">Montreal Gazette<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThere was definitely a shock, a cost in the short run, but people adjusted to that cost in a way that wasn\u2019t detectable 16 years down the road,\u201d said Morrow.<\/p>\n<p>That cost already incurred, and in many cases long forgotten, is what makes the current U.S. demands even more irksome for some observers, including Derek Burney, who was prime minister Brian Mulroney\u2019s chief of staff during the Free Trade Agreement negotiations and was at the bargaining table in 1988. In his view, Canada is being pressured to pony up just to maintain the trade pact the two countries forged long ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe notion that we have to pay an entry fee to get into a negotiation in order to extend the agreement, that\u2019s absurd,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\">Burney said Ottawa\u2019s declaration in June that it will order to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to review a decision tripling the funds U.S. streaming services such as Netflix must earmark for Canadian content \u2014 an irritant for the Trump administration \u2014 is a concession made with nothing in return.<\/p>\n<p>The list of potential demands the current U.S. administration has floated is long and includes targeting Canada\u2019s previously untouchable supply management system, put in place in the 1960s and 1970s to coordinate production and demand for dairy and other agricultural products while controlling imports, with the intention of setting stable prices for farmers and consumers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"article-content--column\">\n<p>We are learning, painfully, that a relationship built on the \u2018chemistry\u2019 of leaders is unsustainable<\/p>\n<p>Richard Leblanc, York University<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Richard Leblanc, professor of governance, law and ethics at York University, warned in a June 23 article that this trajectory could even lead the U.S. to come after investment access to Canadian water, energy, telecommunications and critical minerals, while requiring the removal of environmental restrictions such as plastic bans on U.S. products.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are learning, painfully, that a relationship built on the \u2018chemistry\u2019 of leaders is unsustainable when the larger partner decides to unilaterally rewrite the terms of engagement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>The townsfolk in Sainte-Croix, Que., about a three-hour drive northeast of Huntingdon on the other side of Montreal, are already getting a taste of what could come from the seismic shift in U.S. trade policy. In April, South Shore Furniture shut down its operations there and in nearby Coaticook, Que., letting around 125 employees go. The family company established in 1940 blamed a 77 per cent sales plunge on U.S. tariffs and \u201cmassive dumping\u201d of imported products, which caused prices to collapse and made local production unsustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Wallaceburg residents who were paying attention would likely feel a pang of recognition when a second furniture maker in the region, Bestar Inc., announced its closure the same week.<\/p>\n<p>Unifor, Canada\u2019s largest private sector union, said U.S. trade measures were redirecting global flows and turning Canada into a \u201cfallback market\u201d for low-cost imports, with wider implications for the supply chain since both manufacturers had used locally sourced wood.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embedded-image article-content--full_width\" data-aqa=\"embed-image\"><picture class=\"embedded-image__ratio\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=wsWxHUlQCzdSZg6t4xbqsA,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=QMPB6spMBJXX1kjtjg-P3A 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=C_Z9BctRY_vyygUihue0hg,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=XL94JKaRnAOo0_xwtXhS8Q 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=K9oNQWcuXu0FcOQHYAp_MA,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=hn2rgRQLcWYJh5bdNfAKiw 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=2OxeuzpRVgkdyi05LDrdcg,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=N46bhvzXEXWYKG6cNRMvwA 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=Pdd2oIo8qG9Luls_hfogHQ,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=MejuEtzmAuww-Q3y-tpeMg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=LWf1YdJFF529DN6b1M1JgA\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=LWf1YdJFF529DN6b1M1JgA,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ronald-Reagan-Brian-Mulroney.jpg?location=full_width&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;sig=ZeVIOIv2FbZ3XKySQrn1Qg 2x\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"image-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on June 19, 1988. Mulroney pushed for the Free Trade Agreement because he saw that the U.S. was leaning toward protectionism.<\/span> <span class=\"credit\">Photo by Greig Reekie<\/span> \/<span class=\"distributor\">Toronto Sun archives<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201dWhen companies shut down one after another, it\u2019s not a coincidence,\u201d Daniel Cloutier, a Unifor director in Quebec, said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s the result of an extremely challenging economic environment where businesses are facing deteriorating market access conditions (in the U.S.), compounded by growing dumping practices, particularly from Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>Many of the factors that were at play when Mulroney controversially initiated free trade talks with the United States in the 1980s sound familiar today. A more protectionist U.S. administration was stepping up its use of trade remedies. Canada was looking at regulatory and tax reforms to increase economic efficiency and was open to more foreign investment.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, there was a good rationale for the trade pact, but as Ciuriak pointed out, Canada moved ahead with the idea that the costs would be borne early \u2014 and once \u2014 and then the long-term payoffs would come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn other words, the policy objective was to put the Canadian economy on a faster growth trajectory, which would generate sustained longer-term gains that would cumulatively outweigh any short-run adjustment costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mulroney\u2019s election victory in 1988 allowed him to push aside the concerns of Liberal leader John Turner, head of the official opposition in Ottawa, and some provincial premiers, who feared that Canada would be giving up control of key \u201ceconomic levers\u201d to a much larger partner.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embedded-image article-content--column\" data-aqa=\"embed-image\"><picture class=\"embedded-image__ratio\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=1TbHkyaAIzIQioeRvpULrg,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=TTehjEb_i9pFnnF5niz-bg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=DCdyiNwxlS3jZYmYLZ4oxw,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=pjdlQnZhX1uqx9YWJe2yaA 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=RhfMlcLmn21AsjdB7owtsg,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=e9p9PbA0vFNof_BYiFRPyQ 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=JAiMemj2pU5LUUogaih_6A,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=DcYAgSfBIRw0UC75i5rVgg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=YIUpM-69f_16AZSplfPJeA,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=ZuqqhZiD8LrxY5YXAmSsNA 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Derek Burney\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=MmWkhDxUh1T__qQTaI1oqg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=MmWkhDxUh1T__qQTaI1oqg,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/derek-burney-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;sig=mDzBle54FUujuO1BmpHuzA 2x\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"image-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Derek Burney, pictured in 2008, helped to negotiate Brian Mulroney\u2019s free trade deal with the U.S. \u201cWe were concerned about the power imbalance \u2014 what we\u2019re experiencing in spades today \u2014 and that was that they are 10 times our size,\u201d he said.<\/span> <span class=\"credit\">Photo by Peter Redman<\/span> \/<span class=\"distributor\">Financial Post file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A few years after Wallaceburg lost the glassware plant that gave the town its nickname, Oxford Automotive Inc. closed up shop, too. The facility, which had employed more than 600 people in town in its heyday, announced the closure in late in 2003. The following year, the town said goodbye to North American Plastics, whose abandoned building sat mostly empty as a reminder of what was lost for about 20 years before being demolished in 2014, according to local media reports. Brass forger and bathroom fixture manufacturer Waltec, which once had four thriving plants in Wallaceburg, is also gone, as the trail of closures continued to grow while the population fell.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>Gardiner said the manufacturing jobs paid well and there were feelings of abandonment as they disappeared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody paid any attention while the town was gutted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Even a success story like the three-generations-run St. Clair Tool &amp; Die, which employed more than 500 people in Wallaceburg before free trade, retained only a head office rebranded as St. Clair Technologies and fewer than 20 employees by 2016. Most of the office and manufacturing jobs had shifted to Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"article-content--column\">\n<p>Nobody paid any attention while the town was gutted<\/p>\n<p>John Gardiner, Wallaceburg resident<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Burney says tradeoffs were always kept in mind during the negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement, but the mutual benefits for Canada and the United States were front and centre at all times during sometimes tense negotiations. That\u2019s something he doesn\u2019t see today.<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\">\u201cBoth (U.S. president) Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney were very supportive of the concept of free trade and the mutual benefit that they thought that that would bring,\u201d he said in an interview from his cattle ranch in Golden, Col., which he operates with his son. \u201cThat\u2019s the fundamental difference between then and now. The two leaders today do not have a common purpose about the objective, and the concept of mutual benefit is not part of Donald Trump\u2018s lexicon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>He is incredulous that the Trump administration is trying to force changes to established trade policy such as rules of origin for autos to favour production in the U.S., something Burney says could penalize Canada beyond the initial impact by interfering with its trade commitments to the European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMutual benefit is the central part of any trade agreement. Both sides have to come away as winners, otherwise there\u2019s no point,\u201d he said. \u201cTrump has no interest in that aspect of a trade agreement, for him it\u2019s my way or no way. And I think we have to be just as firm in rejecting what they\u2019re proposing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embedded-image article-content--full_page\" data-aqa=\"embed-image\"><picture class=\"embedded-image__ratio\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=84vz7gr2Ag0wsZTbbvmszg,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=WlExxfU3LlGF8TmiyKX6DA 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=0riTjTcudUidPU65ZRGB3A,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=vO1K9sFnggNBm0ThUIEenA 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=GgClih7b1-Nm2hQwM6RxlQ,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=xMD8vTFGNt7Cpl-ZovxTEQ 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=geUCYmrPrkYrH1fSSNHwZw,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=tRTd9Z14ElIQpVxMZO1jeQ 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=wRmje2Lt3yts7alNneR3rA,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=PKscMGcmeOOE6FNcNvHteA 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Donald Trump with cabinet members\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=vnqJEsUqVFP0Ux8fhoV4tw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=vnqJEsUqVFP0Ux8fhoV4tw,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donald-trump-gs0629.jpg?location=full_page&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;sig=5xw1JLrHfOf5b2I_ezrHDQ 2x\" height=\"1350\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2400\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"image-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">U.S. President Donald Trump is joined by, from left to right, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as he speaks at a press conference during the G7 Leaders\u2019 Summit on June 17, 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France. Trump has distanced the Republican Party from it pro-free-trade roots.<\/span> <span class=\"credit\">Photo by Anna Moneymaker<\/span> \/<span class=\"distributor\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He said the negotiations in the 1980s were contentious at times, and there was a lot of opposition, including from politicians in provinces such as Ontario and from trade groups. But the Canadian bargaining team did not enter the agreement lightly, even walking away late in the negotiations and putting the agreement at risk when the U.S. balked at a key requirement to ensure Canada was not subsumed by its much larger partner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were concerned about the power imbalance \u2014 what we\u2019re experiencing in spades today \u2014 and that was that they are 10 times our size,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are 10 times as powerful, and how risky would it be to enter into an agreement with a country like that?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>At first, the American team including U.S. treasury secretary James Baker, balked at Canada\u2019s insistence on a binding dispute mechanism, Burney recalled. But the Canadian team was convinced that no deal was better than a bad deal. When the U.S. team returned to offer another round of negotiations to deal only with tariffs, where Canada was at a disadvantage before free trade, Burney said the Canadian team turned it down, holding out for the dispute resolution protection they believed they needed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was to protect us in the event that the Americans decided to use their power to override basic rights, which, you know, is exactly what Trump is doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"article-content--column\">\n<p>It&#8217;s astonishing me the extent to which Donald Trump has taken the Republican Party away from its traditional pro-free-trade position<\/p>\n<p>Derek Burney<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Burney recalls that Mulroney threatened to go directly to Reagan, sure that the U.S. president felt strongly enough about getting the free trade agreement that he would intervene directly. That was enough, he said, for the treasury secretary to get down to brass tacks and discuss how the binding dispute mechanism could work.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually the American team came around, he said, adding that the binding trade dispute settlement mechanism in the Free Trade Agreement became the model for a similar tool put in place at the World Trade Organization.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>Burney said his experience in the 1980s stands in stark contrast to the present day, when a large number of U.S. Republicans are opposing free trade, an economic tool their party once embraced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s astonishing me the extent to which Donald Trump has taken the Republican Party away from its traditional pro-free-trade position,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re beginning to see a few cracks now, and I hope more will come as the situation continues to deteriorate. But the Republicans were staunch supporters of free trade, the Democrats were the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embedded-image article-content--column\" data-aqa=\"embed-image\"><picture class=\"embedded-image__ratio\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=67FDwu1r0V6MyD5QBc090w,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=yGf2qN9ZbfImiKloxSqv4g 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=d59v7cSx7hxW4fSbikzr6g,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2400&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=sv0wQilZiSxBVzu2oqjlKQ 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1200px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=HAZLQ1Ez-z28wA2JydFzqw,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=ov_HZAvZks73BhmNwavRow 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=768&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=g6MJIp89NqxKdMTPbSOGdg,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536&amp;type=jpg&amp;sig=z5uXG4TwMlomhPHTs4-Qzw 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=PXparJgp2cuRlvJa6GEFvA,&#10;            https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;type=webp&amp;sig=rI8jly6-ida_jQH8a9KSOA 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"data:,1w\" type=\"image\/webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jared Kushner\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=dVPliUe6q04vxyLzNiVB-w\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=375&amp;sig=dVPliUe6q04vxyLzNiVB-w,&#10;                https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jaraed-kushner-gs0629.jpg?location=column&amp;quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=750&amp;sig=KPQGeySlETOloVgxw_9k9Q 2x\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"image-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner signalled in 2020 where the now-tumultuous trade file was heading by describing CUSMA as a short-duration lease for market access.<\/span> <span class=\"credit\">Photo by URS FLUEELER<\/span> \/<span class=\"distributor\">\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Carlo Dade, director of the centre for international policy and the New North America Initiative at the University of Calgary\u2019s school of public policy, said Trump\u2019s attempts to exert\u00a0executive branch powers and to use trade and tariffs in pursuit of U.S. interests marks a \u201cparadigm shift\u201d that goes beyond political parties.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, set the stage in 2020 by describing CUSMA as a short-duration lease for market access, with a readjustment clause triggered every six years that would give leverage to the stronger party in the event of disagreement. The U.S., Kushner wrote, would probably always win, given the relative size of its economies.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>Dade said it is clear the U.S. now feels like the landlord, putting Canada and Mexico in the position of lessors forced to renegotiate a growing list of terms in order to stay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Originally) it was like, okay, how much is rent going to be, but this time it\u2019s parking spots, landscaping, drapes, carpeting, it\u2019s a security system, and it\u2019s the full nine yards of issues that are being dragged into this \u2014 and the executive or tariff authority allows the administration to use this as a negotiating tool as opposed to the past where everything had to go through Congress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A complicating factor for Canada is that the impact is likely to be felt differently across the country, much as the impact of the original Free Trade Agreement was hardest on manufacturing centres.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is that the costs aren\u2019t that severe,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, if you\u2019re in Fort McMurray, you can say that with confidence. If you\u2019re in Windsor, you\u2019re freaking out \u2014 with good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said industries and governments \u2014 both federal and provincial \u2014 will have to invest more to manage the relationship with the U.S., even as Canada attempts to reduce dependence by doubling exports to other countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe old idea of \u2018friendship,\u2019 which is never really there, let us be a little more lax, so those costs of dealing with the U.S. are going to recur,\u201d said Dade.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we get precise data, as we understand the new evolving American trade policy, we can react.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gardiner said Wallaceburg is still adjusting to the hits it took after the first free-trade agreement was signed with the U.S., including recently tapping grants to hire an economic development expert who helped bring a few new businesses to town.<\/p>\n<p>While he\u2019s proud of the resilience, Gardiner understands what\u2019s at stake for communities across Canada as the country faces another round of upheavals in a bid to hold onto its most important trading relationship.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a price his town already paid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWallaceburg was very unique,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t imagine how many jobs we lost here\u2026. It\u2019s a much different place these days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\"><em>\u2022 Email: bshecter@nationalpost.com <\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group article-content__content-group--feature\">\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__share-group article-delimiter\" data-evt-val=\"{\" control_fields=\"\" data-evt=\"beforeunload\" data-evt-typ=\"page_scroll\">\n<p>Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/>CUSMA could raise the cost of free trade for Canada<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-06-30 10:00:52<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Breadcrumb Trail Links Economy U.S. demands for concessions on CUSMA are stirring up painful memories in communities like Wallaceburg, Ont., where some wonder if the price Canada already paid for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/75211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}