Canadian, US Readouts Emphasize Respective Irritants

The U.S. readout of the meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, mentioned Canada's proposed digital services tax. "Ambassador Tai expressed her hope that the United States and Canada could work together on this issue that could unfairly impact U.S. businesses," it said.

The Canadian readout of the May 2 meeting said, "Minister Ng underscored the importance of upholding rules based trade to strengthen competitiveness through the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), [and] reiterated concerns about ongoing unjustified U.S. duties on Canadian softwood lumber ...." While the readout did not say which rules needed to be followed in order to preserve competitiveness, Canada and Mexico argued that the U.S. interpretation of auto rules of origin would make the North American vehicle manufacturing market less competitive. The United States lost the case, but has made no moves to change its policy (see 2305020054).

Both readouts talked about their concerns about Mexico's energy and mining policies. The U.S. said they talked about "certain Mexican energy and agricultural biotechnology measures that continue to threaten U.S. and Canadian investments and exports, and recent changes in Mexico’s mining law."