By Promit Mukherjee
OTTAWA, March 6 (Reuters) - Canada's minister in charge of trade relations with the U.S., Dominic LeBlanc, will meet with his U.S. counterpart Jamieson Greer on Friday in Washington, the minister's office confirmed, as the two countries come close to an official review of the North American free trade pact which also includes Mexico.
The trilateral free trade deal called the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement, also known as CUSMA in Canada, is up for review by July 1
this year.
"They will discuss the upcoming trilateral review of the CUSMA, as well as bilateral concerns," said Jean-Sébastien Comeau, director of communications for the minister's office.
This is the first time the trade representatives will be meeting this year, although they had spoken occasionally over the phone, LeBlanc had said last week.
They last met in October.
Canada is also hoping to reduce tariffs on key sectors including steel and aluminum, automobiles and parts, copper products and lumber and wood products that have led to job losses in Canada, although almost 90% of overall exports have been flowing into the U.S. duty free due to the USMCA pact, data shows.
President Donald Trump has previously said that he could ditch the trilateral deal as it was irrelevant for the United States, and could strike separate deals with Canada and Mexico instead.
Last week, during a fireside chat, LeBlanc had said that Canada was negotiating with the U.S. to remove tariffs on some affected sectors, and a deal could be folded into bilateral pacts alongside a review of the free trade agreement.
U.S. Trade Representative Greer has previously said that negotiations with Canada were “more challenging,” citing unresolved barriers such as restrictions on dairy and milk markets and U.S. wine and spirits sales.
Canada and the U.S. have not officially started the review process of the USMCA, although the U.S. has already kicked it off with Mexico.
U.S. and Mexican negotiators will hold bilateral discussions starting the week of March 16 as part of the joint review of the trade agreement, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Thursday.
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Andrea Ricci )
