After a year of virtually no progress in improving relations between the government of Canada and the Trump administration, Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to face his biggest test yet as the free trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico is up for review in 2026. Despite talk of diversification, the United States is far and away Canada’s biggest trading partner, with more than 75% of Canadian exports heading south of the border. Should CUSMA not be renewed, Canada’s economy would feel the equivalent of a sucker punch.But it’s crystal clear that the Trump administration will not simply renew the agreement without changes. The US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, has been very candid about the changes he’s going to insist on before moving forward with a renewal. .GIESBRECHT: 2026 is the ‘Year of the Fire Horse’.In a letter to Congress, Greer argued that not all of the Trump administration’s goals have been achieved through CUSMA, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during the first Trump administration. Trump, who was a critic of NAFTA for decades, isn’t going to just rubber-stamp a renewal of its successor if his USTR wants changes. What does Greer want to see happen before giving Trump the green light to renew CUSMA? First of all, Greer wants to see an end to two internet regulation bills passed during the Trudeau era, which were the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act. Greer says both unfairly discriminate against US technology and media firms, and he’s right. .Second, Greer is pointing to Canada’s system of supply management, which severely restricts market access for US dairy products in particular, as a barrier to progress. The changes Greer is pushing for — scrapping the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act, as well as ending Canada’s system of supply management — would all be wins for Canadian consumers. The Online Streaming Act forces foreign streaming services to dedicate five percent of their revenues to funding Canadian content. This is not only an unfair tax on foreign streaming companies, primarily based in the US, but it also raises the cost of streaming for Canadian consumers. .DEW: BC Conservatives' next leader must build, not burn.It’s self-evident that companies don’t just gobble up increased costs. When taxes go up, which is essentially what happened to foreign streaming services via the Online Streaming Act, companies pass those costs onto us, the consumer. That means higher streaming costs for Canadians.Then there’s the Online News Act, which also discriminates against American companies. For companies like Google or Meta to display links to news content, those online giants have to pay content providers every time a viewer decides to click on a link. .But the reality is that it’s the news sites that benefit when platforms like Google show links to their stories, not the reverse. That’s why Meta stopped all news from being shared on its platforms. Meta doesn’t want to have to foot the bill, and it’s Canadian consumers who ultimately suffer. Third, there’s supply management. .GWYN MORGAN: End supply management — for the sake of Canadian consumers.Canadian families are stuck paying literally hundreds of dollars a year in additional costs for eggs, poultry, and dairy because of an antiquated supply management system that should have met its demise decades ago. The federal government is obsessed with protecting fewer than 10,000 dairy farms from global competition. So, it implements a system of supply management that severely restricts the production and import of eggs, poultry, and dairy. .American producers want more access to Canada’s agricultural markets — and the dairy market in particular. Ending supply management and giving our US trading partners more access to those markets would mean more competition and significantly lower prices for Canadian consumers. The Liberals have been steadfastly committed to policies that discriminate against US tech firms since coming to power in 2015. And all parties in Ottawa have been supportive of supply management. .BORG: Divided loyalties — Freeland has no business cashing a paycheque from another government .However, Carney is relatively new to the political scene and has shown a penchant for abandoning longstanding Liberal policies, like the consumer carbon tax, when his back is up against the wall.To protect free trade with the United States, Carney must consider abandoning Ottawa’s bothersome policies on tech and agriculture as negotiations kick into high gear. Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center.
