Pricier packaging, protecting food sovereignty top CUSMA concerns for food sector advocates
Canada’s food sector has been among the most active in federal advocacy related to North America’s fluctuating free trade pact this year, with some advocates urging Ottawa to stand firm with no further concessions to the United States in current trade talks, and others seeking support to deal with the indirect costs associated with tariffs.
“Access to the U.S. market remains one of our top priorities. Since [the Canada-United-States-Mexico Agreement] hasn't been renewed, I think we're going to shift our focus more to managing some of the trade uncertainties and risks,” said Richard Lee, executive director of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers.
Following the mandatory six-year review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) on July 1, U.S. President Donald Trump declined to extend the deal for an additional 16-year term. The pact remains in effect, but its future is more uncertain as it enters into an annual review process.
Trade tensions also mounted when, in July, Trump announced additional 50-per-cent tariffs on a host of Canadian goods—ranging from dairy, alcohol, and various electronics, building materials and agricultural goods—set to begin on Aug. 19. The tariffs would apply even to CUSMA-compliant goods and have no expiry date.
Since the announcement, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour, N.B.) and chief trade negotiator Janice Charette have ramped up discussions with American Trade Representative Jamieson Greer as the two sides attempt to reach a deal.
Since the start of 2026, the organizations that have filed the most communication reports on the federal lobbyists’ registry listing CUSMA as a subject for discussion have included the B.C. Dairy Association (with 58 communication reports listing CUSMA filed between Jan. 1 and Aug. 12), Honda Canada (43 communication reports), the Canadian Pork Council (36 communication reports), and the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (36 communication reports).
Lee told The Hill Times that his group’s primary message to Ottawa on CUSMA is the importance of predictable, rules-based trade frameworks that avoid tariffs and trade disruptions, and the need for the federal government to recognize greenhouse vegetables as a strategic food-security sector.
Although greenhouse vegetables are currently exempt from U.S. tariffs, that sector is still at risk of a financial hit due to the rising costs of inputs such as packaging material, according to Lee. Cartons, boxes, and cases of corrugated paper or paperboard could potentially face 50-per-cent duties if Trump follows through on his Aug. 19 tariffs.
“Boxes or packaging will be impacted. How do you circumvent that?” said Lee. “Those boxes are a significant cost of production that have to be included in some of these risks that we're facing.”
Lee said that the increased costs of packaging may not be a “showstopper,” but “definitely will drive costs of production and the affordability crisis to its limit.”
“Our priorities remain preserving market access, protecting grower competitiveness, and ensuring Ontario's greenhouse sector can continue to supply that fresh food and supporting jobs on both sides of the border,” he said.
“We still have to remain open to the concepts of new markets that may be able to offset some of those transportation costs. Those ultimately are our new focus areas should this Trump reign continue, and we need to focus on survival at that point.”
Food sovereignty is not negotiable
On Aug. 7, CBC News reported that Ottawa is preparing to meet some U.S. demands in exchange for tariff relief. In the report, industry sources with knowledge of the negotiations said Ottawa is considering possibly lifting retaliatory tariffs on U.S. autos, and making some changes on dairy, although they didn't say what dairy sector changes were on the table.
America has cited this country's dairy supply-management system—a national regulatory framework for the dairy, poultry, and egg sectors intended to balance production with consumer demand as a way to ensure stable prices—as a major trade irritant because it uses production quotas, fixed pricing, and tariffs to limit U.S. dairy imports.
The Hill Times reached out to the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) to ask about CUSMA-related advocacy, but did not receive a response by deadline.
While touring an aluminum facility in Saguenay, Que., on Aug. 6, Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) told reporters his government was “loyal” to the dairy sector’s supply-management system, reinforcing an earlier statement in December 2025 that supply management was "not on the table."
On Aug. 13, DFC president David Wiens said in a press release that it is “imperative that no more concessions on dairy or supply management are made in talks with the United States.”
In that release, Wiens said he's concerned about additional concessions after already conceding “significant market access through successive trade agreements, including CUSMA.”
“Our national food sovereignty is not up for negotiation,” continued Wiens. “We won’t apologize for wanting a strong Canadian dairy sector that ensures a reliable supply of milk from Canadian farms, produced to Canadian standards while contributing to Canada’s economy and the vitality of its rural communities.”
Regarding the pork sector, Claire Citeau, vice-president of trade advocacy and public affairs for the Canadian Pork Council, told The Hill Times by email on Aug. 13 that her group's priority is to “protect the stability and predictability CUSMA provides.”
“Canada should seek a full-term extension, preserve duty-free access and use the agreement’s existing mechanisms to resolve trade irritants, not reopen a successful agreement and create unnecessary uncertainty,” she said by email.
“Any uncertainty around CUSMA’s long-term future affects investment and planning across the pork sector. This is an integrated North American value chain, not simply an export relationship. Canadian agricultural exports are largely made up of inputs, representing approximately 70 per cent of exports, which directly support U.S. manufacturing and exports to the world.”
Citeau said that the best outcome would resolve specific irritants through existing tools, and preserve “the predictable North American market our farmers and processors need to compete globally.”
'We need to get back to tariff-free trade': Lucas Malinowski
Canada’s auto sector currently faces a 25-per-cent U.S. Section 232 tariff on non-CUSMA compliant vehicles. In retaliation, Canada imposed its own 25-per-cent tariff on U.S. imports in April 2025.
Lucas Malinowski, president of the Global Automakers of Canada, told The Hill Times that significant disruption is being felt in what is historically a very integrated North American auto industry, adding, “We need to get back to tariff-free trade.”
“The new tariffs that the White House has proposed don't directly impact the auto sector, but the existing 232 tariffs would presumably persist, and those are increasing costs on both sides of the border to the amount of billions of dollars,” he said.
“I always like to remind everyone it's not just American-based automakers that build in the U.S. for the Canadian market; practically every automaker in the Canadian market builds in the U.S. for Canada, so those impacts are pretty broad. If we don't get to a resolution, my concern is that the persistent uncertainty that's just increasing costs across the industry … and reducing choice and increasing costs for consumers will stick around.”
When asked if he's concerned about Trump’s reliability when it comes to any possible trade deal, Malinowski said Canada needs to approach negotiations with “eyes wide open.”
“Any agreement that we enter into with the Americans should have some guarantees—that both sides of the agreement will hold up their end of the bargain and make very clear what the consequences would be if those agreements are reneged on,” he said.
“We really do need a durable agreement, and ideally we need to get Canada and the U.S. to the formal [negotiating] table on CUSMA and that review.”
Fem Hampson, the Chancellor’s Professor and professor of International Affairs at Carleton University, told The Hill Times that Canada is currently negotiating “under yet another barrel of the gun.”
“There are some observers who have said that Trump doesn't mean it; he's going to chicken out. Well, that remains to be seen,” he said. “I think part of the government's dilemma here is that whatever they end up with, even if it's lower tariffs, it's not going to satisfy a whole lot of Canadians.”
Hampson said that the U.S. president has already shown he is not trustworthy, which raises concerns that any deal related to CUSMA might not be “worth the paper that it's written on.”
“[Trump] negotiated the CUSMA agreement. It was his agreement, and he has broken it in many places. He hasn't used the dispute settlement mechanisms that are available in CUSMA to deal with trade issues,” said Hampson.
“We have to show good faith, but at the same time I think there has to be, obviously, a healthy dose of reality that whatever gets negotiated is not necessarily going to lead to a new and more stable equilibrium in the relationship.”
Hampson said that living under a comprehensive tariff regime, where just about everything Canada trades with the U.S. is subject to a form of tariff, effectively means the end of CUSMA for all intents and purposes, even if the deal is renewed.
“CUSMA was intended to be a tariff reduction, a so-called free-trade regime. It's no longer a free trade regime, right? CUSMA becomes a managed tariff regime,” Hampson said.
jcnockaert@hilltimes.com
The Hill Times
Lobbying related to between Jan. 1 and Aug. 12, 2026
| Organization | Communication reports |
| B.C. Dairy Association | 58 |
| Honda Canada | 43 |
| Canadian Pork Council | 36 |
| Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers | 36 |
| Fruit & Vegetable Growers of Canada | 26 |
| Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers | 25 |
| Motion Picture Association of Canada | 19 |
| ArcelorMittal Dofasco | 16 |
| Chemistry Industry Association of Canada | 16 |
| FCA Canada | 16 |
The above table shows the organizations that filed the most communication reports listing the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement as a subject for discussion in advocacy that occurred between Jan. 1 and Aug. 12. Based on a search of the federal lobbyists’ registry on Aug. 12, 2026.