Ontario Premier Doug Ford said all provincial and territorial premiers agree the federal government should negotiate a bilateral trade deal with the United States.

Ford, who currently chairs the Council of the Federation, Canada’s group of 13 prime ministers, said they received a call on Wednesday and there was a clear consensus that the country needed separate agreements with the United States and Mexico.

“All prime ministers know that Mexico imports cheap Chinese parts, puts on made-in-Mexico stickers and ships them through the United States and Canada, resulting in the loss of jobs in the United States and Canada” , he said after the call. envelope. “We want fair trade.”

When asked specifically whether the premiers had signed on to Ford’s proposal for a bilateral agreement with the United States excluding Mexico, Ford said yes.

Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey told reporters in Ottawa that what had been agreed was a contingency plan.

“The idea was that if the old agreement failed, we would be interested in supporting two separate bilateral agreements,” he said. The Canada-United States-Mexico agreement must be revised in 2026.

Concerns over Chinese transshipment via Mexico

The premiers are requesting a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his aides to discuss this idea. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said members of President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration and advisers to new President-elect Donald Trump have expressed “very serious” concerns to her that the issue of Mexico becoming a ” backdoor” for Chinese products.

Freeland sought to reassure nervous Canadians that the country is in a good place with the new Trump administration, even if it threatens new tariffs, as Ottawa moves in step with the United States on Chinese trade irritants .

The Mexican president criticized the project

This week, Trudeau raised the issue with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Brazil, saying he had raised his concerns directly with her.

Speaking to reporters in Mexico after Ford first raised the idea earlier in November, Sheinbaum said the idea had no future. She said when the trilateral trade deal was first signed, Mexico advocated for it to include Canada.

WATCH | A former Mexican official reacts to Ford’s idea:

Mexico’s chief negotiator denounces Canadian prime ministers who want Mexico to leave NAFTA 2.0

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford have called for Mexico to be excluded from the North American trade deal. Mexico’s former chief NAFTA negotiator, Kenneth Smith Ramos, responds.

Stuart Trew, a trade researcher at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, said he thinks the move is an attempted diversion.

“It seems like they’re afraid of what (President Donald) Trump might do on tariffs,” he said. “They’re taking the attention away from Canada and putting the attention on Mexico. They’re throwing Mexico under the bus.”

Instead, he said Canada and Mexico should work together on a trade strategy under the second Trump administration.