Carney meeting with premiers this month as CUSMA talks intensify

Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with the premiers in Ottawa later this month, the start of a busy year where the mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA) kicks into high gear.

Carney will hold the first ministers' meeting on Jan. 29 and will host a dinner the night before, according to sources with knowledge of the plans who were not authorized to speak publicly. 

The prime minister and the premiers have been meeting periodically, often virtually, over the last year in the shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. Trump's tariffs continue to punish Canadian sectors including the steel, aluminum and auto industries and spur economic uncertainty.Trump's point person on trade has already laid out a series of conditions the administration would like to see in order to extend the trading pact for another 16 years after its 2036 expiration.

In December, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Congress that CUSMA has been "successful to a certain degree" but there need to be changes before Trump agrees to extend it.

Greer pointed to persistent trade irritants for the U.S. administration, including Canada's dairy quota system and its online streaming law, which impacts tech giants like Netflix, Spotify and YouTube, and the ongoing boycotts in some provinces of U.S. alcohol.

Carney's meeting with the premiers falls just days after Parliament returns.

It also comes on the heels of Carney's trip to China where trade, energy, agriculture and international security will be on the table.