The report mostly highlights how the US has been pressuring Canada on multiple fronts to get what they want out of any deal. And the crux of it mostly underscores the notion that the US administration currently views that the USMCA pact is not one that is set in stone. That being it is a deal that they could easily walk away from and look to explore separate bilateral deals with Canada and Mexico instead.
If so, that will make things more fractured in terms of economic and trade ties between the three countries. But as we know with Trump, he won't ascribe to something if he is not totally on board with the idea. And he's more than willing to inflict pain, no matter what the consequences might be. It's a double-edged sword really.
In this case, the US really wants to force trade concessions out of Canada. And if they can't do that, then they are more than willing to pursue a route in leaving Canada on the outs in negotiating another deal with Mexico. That of course by leaving the USMCA agreement dead in the water.
I think a lot of this is baked into market expectations already. That being there won't be a renewal to the USMCA pact and that there will be another prolonged process of economic negotiations going back and forth.
However, the actual economic impact of it all is still something that needs to be accounted for. That especially if more tariffs start to come into the picture. And knowing how much Trump loves his tariffs, that will certainly be a key risk event to watch out for.
The full report by the NYT can be found here (may be gated).
