The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that Prime Minister Mark Carney said Trump administration officials have been clear that they don't want to trigger a vote in Congress by changing the "fundamental architecture" of the North American free trade deal. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that Mr. Carney said that Canada, the United States and Mexico are having separate bilateral talks on various trade issues, as no side desires major changes to the existing agreement. The PM said all those discussions are happening "in the context of maintaining the foundation" of CUSMA. If the deal were to be "fundamentally changed, then that would have to be approved by the relevant legislatures," said Mr. Carney. "The U.S. has been clear that they do not want to go to Congress to change the fundamental architecture," he said. The U.S., Canada and Mexico do almost $2-trillion (U.S.) in annual trade with each other, and CUSMA-compliant goods have largely been exempt from Mr. Trump's barrage of tariffs -- a fact Mr. Carney pointed out in his remarks on Saturday. Still, the White House has placed new duties on products such as autos and steel from its two neighbours, straining ties and disrupting supply chains.

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