US facing headwinds in trade negotiations with Canada, US ambassador says

By Ed White

TORONTO, March 12 (Reuters) - ‌U.S. Ambassador to ​Canada ​Pete Hoekstra said Washington wants to renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact but faces resistance from Canada, underscoring uncertainty as a mandatory July 1 ‌review approaches.

Speaking on Thursday at the Canadian Crops Convention in Toronto, he ⁠said the U.S. believes the USMCA pact, known as CUSMA in Canada, has worked well but there ‌have been no “substantive” talks with ‌Canada since October.

The Canadian minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade met with his counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, last week.

"I think we want to get to ​an agreement, but we are facing some headwinds in the negotiations," Hoekstra said, citing a lack of "substantive" discussions since October.

Hoekstra said:

* Canada should do everything it can ⁠to get into the lowesttariff buckets. * The U.S. is looking for coalitions with countries thatwill make sure that ​if there are trade agreements, then thenon-tariff trade barriers are removed. * U.S. President Donald Trump has said there will be sometariff for ​getting access to the U.S. market so the ‌Canadiangovernment and businesses should make the case why it isbeneficial for the U.S. to do business with Canada at the lowesttariff rate. * ⁠Canada and the U.S. can also work more closely on energy.The U.S. already imports a lot of oil and natural gas fromCanada, the U.S. processes much of this energy, and it ⁠wouldwant to expand the partnership. * Canada should also build a stockpile of critical mineralsin Canada or ​the U.S. to use during emergencies. Canada has manycritical minerals and it should develop a full supply chain tobecome an ideal partner for the U.S.The office of the CanadianMinister Dominic LeBlanc, who ‌is responsible for Canada-U.S.trade, said: * Canada remains committed to establishing a new economicand security relationship with the United States that willdeliver ‌for workers and businesses on both sides of the border. * "The Minister looks forward to further ⁠engagement with hisAmerican and Mexican counterparts ‌over the coming months ​as weundertake the trilateral and bilateral review of theCanada-United States-Mexico Agreement."

(Reporting by Ed White in Toronto and Promit Mukherjee in Ottawa; Editing by ‌Howard Goller)

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