Canada needs to be prepared for the economic consequences if the

United States

decides to withdraw from the Canada

–

U.S.

–

Mexico Agreement (

CUSMA

), warned John Weekes, former chief negotiator of the North American Free Trade Agreement (

NAFTA

).

“We’re not even sure that the United States really wants (CUSMA) to continue,” he said in a

recent interview

with the Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn. “We have to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.”

The worst-case scenario, according to Weekes, would be that Canada’s 30-year trading relationship with the U.S. is no longer sustainable.

“The issue here is that we can’t really control what the Americans are going to do. We can work with our partners in the United States and hope that they can influence the policy of the administration. The policy may change over the coming months as Americans realize that

Trump’s tariff policy

isn’t in their best interests, but you can’t base a country’s future on hope,” he said. “We have to look at how to do things on our own and with other partners.”

In addition to

trade

diversification, Weekes said Canada needs to make major reforms to its economy to make it stronger and encourage foreign investment in resource and infrastructure projects.

“The United States accounts for about 13 per cent of world trade, so there’s another 87 per cent of world trade that’s up for grabs in the (World Trade Organization), and we shouldn’t lose sight of that as we look ahead,” he said.

Weekes pointed to India as a country that Canada should try to have a better trade partnership with.

“This country is now the world’s fifth largest economy and expected to overtake Germany and Japan in fairly short order. We’re taking about a country of equivalent strength perhaps in the coming years to China and the United States,” he said.

Weekes said that Canadians need to encourage the government to continue to move quickly on reforming the domestic economy with its liquefied natural gas, critical mineral and oil projects because it’s been difficult to attract both foreign and domestic investment.

“A lot of Canadians are investing elsewhere,” he said.

That doesn’t mean all of the projects need to be completed, however. Weekes said that there would be a lot of interest in new investment in Canada even in the planning stages.

“If we could get through these hurdles in a year that would be quite a remarkable achievement,” he said. “That would send a signal to investors that Canada really is open for business.”

The formal CUSMA review is expected to begin on July 1, 2026.

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• Email: novid@postmedia.com