“It’s wrong to conclude that Canada won’t have a preferential agreement with the U.S. at the end of the day,” said Steve Verheul, Ottawa’s former chief negotiator for the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement, although he acknowledged that the review of the deal will be “a difficult negotiation.” (The Logic)

Talking point: U.S. President Donald Trump has framed tariffs as a permanent fixture of his economic plan, and imposed levies on Canadian automobiles and other exports despite USMCA, which his first administration negotiated. But Verheul, speaking at the Public Policy Forum’s Growth Summit in Toronto on Thursday, predicted that Trump’s bid to force firms to reshore manufacturing into the U.S. would fail, because doing so will take at least half a decade in most sectors and be “horrendously expensive.” Other summit speakers urged diversification. While uncertainty hangs over Canadian goods exports to the U.S., there are untapped opportunities “in services and the knowledge economy,” which aren’t subject to tariffs, said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets.