Trump, Canada and Mexico meet at World Cup draw to pledge further work on CUSMA amid tensions
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump met with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada’s Mark Carney on the sidelines of the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw in Washington on Thursday, a 45-minute encounter officials said was partly aimed at the future of the North American free trade arrangement.
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“The three leaders met for approximately 45 minutes,” Audrey Champoux, a spokesperson for Carney, said in an email. “They’ve agreed to keep working together on CUSMA,” she added, using the Canadian acronym for the trade deal Americans call the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
The meeting took place amid strained relations between the three countries. Trump has imposed steep tariffs on some exports from Canada and Mexico that he says fall outside the current agreement and has signaled plans to seek renegotiation of the trade pact next year. He has also threatened additional measures if Mexico and Canada do not do more to address cross-border migration and drug trafficking.
Thursday’s discussion was the first between Trump and Sheinbaum, while Carney has visited the White House twice since Trump returned to office. Their gathering followed a period of suspended trade talks after an earlier dispute over an anti-tariff advertisement, and came after comments by Trump earlier this year that drew ire in Ottawa — including a suggestion that Canada could become a 51st U.S. state.
Relations with Mexico have also been tested. Trump said in recent months he would be “OK” with air strikes on Mexican soil to target traffickers, remarks that Sheinbaum has adamantly rejected. “The strikes will never happen,” she vowed, underscoring the diplomatic fault lines that remain even as leaders signal a willingness to keep negotiating.
Carney, a prominent Canadian public figure, faced criticism at international meetings this year after a remark about his communications with Trump that was widely publicized. Still, all three countries have cooperated on the joint 2026 World Cup bid, launched in 2017, and Trump highlighted coordination on the tournament while accepting a FIFA honor at the draw.
Trump was presented with FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize during ceremonies tied to the draw, an award intended to recognize “exceptional contributions to peace and unity.” The decision sparked controversy; human rights campaigners had urged FIFA not to bestow the prize on the U.S. president, and critics argued the award politicized the governing body.
Despite the public show of cordiality — and Trump’s comment that “the coordination and friendship and relationship has been outstanding” — substantive questions remain about the future of trade and security cooperation among the three neighbors. Officials said further talks will continue in the coming months as governments weigh whether to open formal renegotiations of CUSMA/USMCA.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
