The Western Producer | 30 March 2026
Canada, US shift to less comprehensive trade deals
By Sean Pratt
Canada is shifting its trade negotiating tactics.
“Trade officials have told us that they’re much more open to less comprehensive agreements that can be signed more quickly,” said Michael Harvey, executive director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance.
“And we think that’s a good thing because it allows us to make progress in an uncertain environment.”
The United States has taken a similar approach.
Julie Callahan, chief agricultural negotiator with the United States Trade Representative, said the agricultural trade landscape is almost unrecognizable in that country.
A plethora of Agreements on Reciprocal Trade is helping the United States slash its trade deficit.
“We really have completed a fundamental reset of our trade relationships, and the reset has been delivering tangible benefits,” she told delegates attending the 2026 Agri-Pulse Ag & Food Policy Summit in Washington, D.C.
Why it Matters: Canada and the United States are heavily reliant on agricultural exports.
Over the past 12 months, the U.S. has signed agreements with nine countries:
- Malaysia
- Cambodia
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Argentina
- Bangladesh
- Taiwan
- Indonesia
- Ecuador
It also has framework agreements in place with another 10 partners:
- India
- Japan
- South Korea
- North Macedonia
- Switzerland
- Liechtenstein
- Thailand
- United Kingdom
- Vietnam
- European Union
Callahan credits U.S. president Donald Trump’s April 2, 2025, Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs for providing those countries with the incentive they needed to rush to the negotiating table.
Agreements are getting finalized in months rather than the years it took to get the ink on the dotted line for the more traditional free trade agreements.
“The reciprocal tariffs had an incredible motivating influence on our trading partners,” she said.
Callahan said there has been no time in the USTR’s history where it has been able to get so many deals across the finish line in such a short period of time.
Harvey is not concerned about Canada being left in the dust.
“We’ve got more agreements than they have,” he said.
He noted that the U.S. is not a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and it does not yet have a pact with the EU or many South American countries.
Canada recently completed deals with Indonesia and Ecuador and is advancing deals with the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Mercosur and India.
Callahan said the goal of the Agreements on Reciprocal Trade is to reduce tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, although some of them also include specific purchase commitments.
“Many of the countries have committed to things that would have been unthinkable a year ago,” she said.
For instance, many countries have agreed to recognize U.S. oversight of its food processing plants and food safety systems rather than sending their own inspectors over for time-consuming individual plant audits.
“This is an immediate win for companies that have been waiting and waiting for access to these markets,” said Callahan.
Harvey said the U.S. approach was to create uncertainty through Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs and then negotiate deals that would reduce those tariffs.
“The weakness of the U.S. approach is that it’s not clear how solid those trade agreements are given the legal and political uncertainty inside the U.S.,” he said.
Trump’s Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs were recently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Callahan said that same day the U.S. moved forward with a 10 per cent baseline Section 122 tariff and then initiated individual Section 301 investigations that could result in further tariffs for select markets.
She expects those two tools to provide the USTR with the leverage it needs to continue signing more Agreements on Reciprocal Trade.
In the meantime, the USDA is projecting a US$29 billion agricultural trade deficit in the 2026-27 fiscal year, down from $43.7 billion the previous year.
“The needle is moving in the right direction,” said Callahan.
