Canada’s top envoy to the US will resign before review of free trade agreement

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. for the last six years said Tuesday she’s resigning next year as the two major trading partners plan to review the free trade agreement.

Ambassador Kirsten Hillman said in a letter it is the right time to put in place someone who will oversee talks about the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that is up review in 2026.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Hillman “prepared the foundations for Canada in the upcoming review” of the agreement.

Carney noted she’s one of the longest-serving ambassadors to the United States in Canada’s history.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Hillman in 2017. She helped lead the trade negotiations during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term and worked with U.S. and Chinese officials to win the release of two Canadians detained in China.

Trump ended trade talks with Carney in October after the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement in the U.S., which upset the U.S. president. That followed a spring of acrimony, since abated, over Trump’s insistence that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and more than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. Most exports to the U.S. are exempted by the USMCA trade agreement but that deal is up for review.

Carney aims to double non-U.S. trade over the next decade.

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.