Posted originally on the CTH on August 25, 2026 | Sundance

There are many people in Canada demanding to see the rough draft proposals of the U.S-Canada trade agreement so they can judge for themselves the issues that Carney claimed were irreconcilable.  For those people this interview today by Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc will only embolden those requests.

Trade Emissary LeBlanc outlined the major fracture points that drove Prime Minister Mark to reject the deal. I’ll put the full interview below which everyone should watch because what LeBlanc outlined is rather funny.  Carney was obviously looking for a reason to walk away, because the fracture points were ridiculously small.

Essentially, it boils down to four issues. !1) Removal of tariffs on Canadian assembled Semi-Trucks. (2) U.S. streaming services writing code for “search engines” in the French language. (3) Canada demanding 5% of gross revenues from U.S. tech platforms, and the last one is silly because it already exists: (4) the U.S. having a right to reject a trade deal made by Canada with a non-market economy, ie. CHINA.

Taking the issues one by one we start with ♦U.S. tariffs on Canadian Semi Trucks.  Canada wanted tariffs on Big Rigs removed. The U.S. said no.

The reason is simple.  Big Rigs assembled/built in Canada are falling apart in the USA. Why? Because they are full of cheap Chinese component goods and parts that wear out quickly.  The U.S. wants two things on this issue. Either: (1) Make them in the USA, or (2) stop using cheap Chinese component parts.  The parts that Canada are using are not even available in the USA because we tariff and reject them, so why should we accept them when Canada installs them?  Either quit using Chinese parts (hence, the trade alignment against Chinese imports), or accept a tariff equal to the rate we would apply if the product was coming directly from China.