Trump &….1)Carney says U.S. trade talks are ‘nasty’ after Trump criticizes Canada’s leadership; 2);Traffic to start flowing across new bridge between Canada and U.S. amid Trump’s tariff battle; 3)U.S., Canada and Mexico begin bumpy negotiations to renew North American trade pact – from earlier in July

2)U.S., Canada and Mexico begin bumpy negotiations to renew North American trade pact

AP Writers Maria Verza in Mexico City and Rob Gilles in Toronto contributed to this story.

July, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tourists from Chattanooga check into beach resorts in Cancun. Canadian auto parts feed factories in the American Midwest — and vice versa. Happy hour revelers raise glasses of Mexican tequila and mezcal at bars in Seattle.

It adds up. The United States trades $1.9 trillion a year — $5 billion a day — worth of goods and services with its neighbors, Canada and Mexico. They have supplanted China as America’s top two trading partners.

So the stakes are high when it comes to fiddling with the rules that govern trade between the three countries. And after a year of President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policies, many U.S., Canadian and Mexican businesses would welcome the return of stability across North America.

They are not likely to get it.

The regional trade pact — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA — that Trump negotiated and boasted about in his first term came up for renewal Wednesday, starting a process that is likely to last months, maybe longer.

And the path forward is lined with landmines.

“There’s going to be a lot of drama this summer,” Diego Marroquín Bitar, a fellow in the America’s program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last week at a USMCA forum sponsored by the Cato Institute.

A bumpy road ahead for North American trade

The U.S. is making demands that could effectively force Canada and Mexico to surrender some automaking production to the United States. That might bring more auto factory jobs to the United States. But it would also upend established supply chains and would push up U.S. prices for new cars that now average nearly $50,000 at a time when American consumers are already furious about the high cost of living.

Trump, characteristically, has added to the tension by threatening to pull out of his own agreement altogether.

In 2020, the USMCA replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which tore down most trade barriers between the three North American countries.

Trump and other critics had called NAFTA a job killer because it encouraged U.S. companies to move factories south of the border to take advantage of low-wage Mexican labor, then ship goods back to the United States duty free.

His USMCA ended up being similar to NAFTA — though it pressured factories to pay higher wages and make sure that more of what they made originated in North America in an effort to prevent Chinese products from slipping across regional borders duty free.

North America trade deal is up for renewal

The USMCA included a novel provision requiring the pact to be renewed every six years. That deadline was Wednesday, and the three countries met virtually. But U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that the United States was not ready to renew the pact as it is for another 16 years — which would have been until 2042. The United States wants changes to the agreement to reduce its trade deficits with Canada and Mexico and to resolve specific disputes over issues such as Canada’s protection of its dairy industry.

The USMCA remains in effect while the three countries continue to work on ways to resolve their differences; they have until the current term ends in 2036 to reach an agreement. Otherwise, the pact expires.

Meantime, any USMCA country can pull out of the pact provided it gives its two partners six months’ notice — a red buzzer that Canada and Mexico, dependent on trade with the United States, fear Trump just might push.

Trump, after all, said in June that he was “not looking to renew” the trade pact with Canada and Mexico. “We don’t need anything that they have,” he said.

Canada is out in the cold

The United States and Mexico have held talks on renewing the trade agreement. But Canada has so far been stuck on the sidelines.

Patrick Childress, a partner at the Holland & Knight law firm and a former U.S. trade negotiator, said: “The danger for Canada is this: that the U.S. government and the Mexican government reach agreement on changes to core provisions of the treaty and then show up in Ottawa and say: ‘Here’s what we’ve agreed to. You can take it or leave it.”‘

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the three trading partners plan to meet virtually on Wednesday, adding: “I’m not looking for my pen.”

Carney later said in French his priority is to update the USMCA.

Pushing production to the United States

The U.S. wants a refreshed trade pact to do more to make sure that Chinese goods don’t get in through the back door.

But the most contentious issue is that the U.S. is also seeking a brand-new requirement: that 50% of cars be made in the United States, Carney confirmed in early June. Currently, none of the USMCA countries gets a guaranteed share of production. “It’s a red line for both Mexico and Canada, and it goes against the spirit and the letter of regional integration,” Ocampo said.

Marcos Carias, economist at the credit insurer Coface, said only 1 in 5 Mexican and Canadian cars imported into the United States would currently meet the 50% standard.

Vehicle models likely to be hit with higher costs under the plan, he said, include Ford’s Maverick compact pickup truck, Chevrolet’s mid-size Equinox SUV and some Nissan sedans — all made in Mexico. Carias’ “back of the envelope” calculations suggest that prices could increase 5% to 7% on the most-affected models.

1)Carney says U.S. trade talks are ‘nasty’ after Trump criticizes Canada’s leadership

World Aug 7, 2026 1:47 PM EDT

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that trade negotiations with the United States had turned “nasty” after President Donald Trump derided America’s neighbor and its leadership while threatening to expand tariffs.

Carney said Canada remained engaged in the negotiations despite Trump’s comments, describing the talks as a fight to protect Canadian workers and businesses.

“This is a tough negotiation,” Carney said in French. “You can say ‘nasty.’ But this is a question of Canadian jobs. It’s a question of the future of Canadian businesses.”

Trump criticized Canada during a speech Wednesday in Las Vegas.

“Canada’s nasty. They are. They’re nasty,” Trump said. “I love the people, but they’re nasty. Nasty leadership.”

Carney said “we are in the middle of a tariff war with the Americans” but laughed when asked about Trump’s description. He said Canadian negotiators were in Washington this week and that he expected further conversations with Trump after speaking with him last week.

The United States already has tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and automobiles. Trump has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on more Canadian goods beginning Aug. 19.

Tariffs are taxes on imports, which companies can then pass along to consumers in the form of higher prices. The president maintains that the costs created by tariffs will cause manufacturing to relocate to the U.S., though there is little evidence of that in the economic data.

Trump’s tariff threats and repeated suggestions that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state have angered many Canadians, prompting many Canadians to cancel trips to the United States.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has argued that Canada and China are the only two countries to retaliate against Trump’s tariffs, citing restrictions on U.S. alcohol sales in some Canadian provinces among his concerns. Canadian officials say their countermeasures were a response to existing U.S. tariffs.

The latest comments followed months of escalating tensions. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Carney criticized major powers for using economic coercion against smaller countries, prompting Trump to respond: “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Canada is one of the United States’ largest trading partners, and the move threatens to push prices higher at a time when Americans are already frustrated with the high cost of living ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Carney said existing U.S. tariffs on aluminum have contributed to a 58% increase in aluminum prices in the United States.

“That’s not a good situation for American companies,” Carney said.

2) Traffic to start flowing across new bridge between Canada and U.S. amid Trump’s tariff battle

COurtesy Associated Press: Jul 27, 2026

DETROIT (AP) — Traffic is set to start flowing Monday across a new bridge over the Detroit River that will serve as a critical route for trade, jobs and tourism between Canada and the U.S.

Last week, Canada celebrated the Gordie Howe International Bridge with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Windsor, Ontario, to mark the completion of the multibillion-dollar, multiyear project.

U.S. and Michigan representatives were uninvited from Friday’s gathering after President Donald Trump suddenly announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods entering America.

The bridge is named for Howe, a Canadian icon known as “Mr. Hockey” who wore No. 9 while playing on the other side of the Detroit River for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. He died in 2016.

More than 70% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S., making America its largest trade partner, and Detroit is the No. 1 port for truck traffic on the U.S.-Canada border, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

For nearly a century, the privately-owned Ambassador Bridge has been the only route for large commercial trucks moving between the U.S. and Canada at Detroit. Businesses say the new six-lane span will be faster and less expensive.

The span is 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long and rises 151 feet (46 meters) above the river at its highest point. Pedestrians and bicyclists carrying proper identification will be able to cross it for free in a few weeks.

Construction on the new bridge began in 2018 but took years, partly because of a global slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada paid to build the bridge at an estimated cost of $6.4 billion. A recent agreement says Canada will share some toll revenue with the U.S. government for 15 years.

Trump praised his administration for that deal in a social media post while the Ontario event was in progress. “We changed the terms,” he said.

Michigan will also get a share, but not until Canada’s costs are recovered, likely decades from now.

3)U.S., Canada and Mexico begin bumpy negotiations to renew North American trade pact – from earlier in July

AP Writers Maria Verza in Mexico City and Rob Gilles in Toronto contributed to this story.

July, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tourists from Chattanooga check into beach resorts in Cancun. Canadian auto parts feed factories in the American Midwest — and vice versa. Happy hour revelers raise glasses of Mexican tequila and mezcal at bars in Seattle.

It adds up. The United States trades $1.9 trillion a year — $5 billion a day — worth of goods and services with its neighbors, Canada and Mexico. They have supplanted China as America’s top two trading partners.

So the stakes are high when it comes to fiddling with the rules that govern trade between the three countries. And after a year of President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policies, many U.S., Canadian and Mexican businesses would welcome the return of stability across North America.

They are not likely to get it.

The regional trade pact — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA — that Trump negotiated and boasted about in his first term came up for renewal Wednesday, starting a process that is likely to last months, maybe longer.

And the path forward is lined with landmines.

“There’s going to be a lot of drama this summer,” Diego Marroquín Bitar, a fellow in the America’s program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last week at a USMCA forum sponsored by the Cato Institute.

A bumpy road ahead for North American trade

The U.S. is making demands that could effectively force Canada and Mexico to surrender some automaking production to the United States. That might bring more auto factory jobs to the United States. But it would also upend established supply chains and would push up U.S. prices for new cars that now average nearly $50,000 at a time when American consumers are already furious about the high cost of living.

Trump, characteristically, has added to the tension by threatening to pull out of his own agreement altogether.

In 2020, the USMCA replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which tore down most trade barriers between the three North American countries.

Trump and other critics had called NAFTA a job killer because it encouraged U.S. companies to move factories south of the border to take advantage of low-wage Mexican labor, then ship goods back to the United States duty free.

His USMCA ended up being similar to NAFTA — though it pressured factories to pay higher wages and make sure that more of what they made originated in North America in an effort to prevent Chinese products from slipping across regional borders duty free.

North America trade deal is up for renewal

The USMCA included a novel provision requiring the pact to be renewed every six years. That deadline was Wednesday, and the three countries met virtually. But U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that the United States was not ready to renew the pact as it is for another 16 years — which would have been until 2042. The United States wants changes to the agreement to reduce its trade deficits with Canada and Mexico and to resolve specific disputes over issues such as Canada’s protection of its dairy industry.

The USMCA remains in effect while the three countries continue to work on ways to resolve their differences; they have until the current term ends in 2036 to reach an agreement. Otherwise, the pact expires.

Meantime, any USMCA country can pull out of the pact provided it gives its two partners six months’ notice — a red buzzer that Canada and Mexico, dependent on trade with the United States, fear Trump just might push.

Trump, after all, said in June that he was “not looking to renew” the trade pact with Canada and Mexico. “We don’t need anything that they have,” he said.

Canada is out in the cold

The United States and Mexico have held talks on renewing the trade agreement. But Canada has so far been stuck on the sidelines.

Patrick Childress, a partner at the Holland & Knight law firm and a former U.S. trade negotiator, said: “The danger for Canada is this: that the U.S. government and the Mexican government reach agreement on changes to core provisions of the treaty and then show up in Ottawa and say: ‘Here’s what we’ve agreed to. You can take it or leave it.”‘

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the three trading partners plan to meet virtually on Wednesday, adding: “I’m not looking for my pen.”

Carney later said in French his priority is to update the USMCA.

Pushing production to the United States

The U.S. wants a refreshed trade pact to do more to make sure that Chinese goods don’t get in through the back door.

But the most contentious issue is that the U.S. is also seeking a brand-new requirement: that 50% of cars be made in the United States, Carney confirmed in early June. Currently, none of the USMCA countries gets a guaranteed share of production. “It’s a red line for both Mexico and Canada, and it goes against the spirit and the letter of regional integration,” Ocampo said.

Marcos Carias, economist at the credit insurer Coface, said only 1 in 5 Mexican and Canadian cars imported into the United States would currently meet the 50% standard.

Vehicle models likely to be hit with higher costs under the plan, he said, include Ford’s Maverick compact pickup truck, Chevrolet’s mid-size Equinox SUV and some Nissan sedans — all made in Mexico. Carias’ “back of the envelope” calculations suggest that prices could increase 5% to 7% on the most-affected models.