Amid trade tensions, US, North American leaders take to the stage

It was all smiles at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada took to the stage for the 2026 World Cup draw, while trade tensions continued to escalate in the background.

For Donald Trump, the brief interaction marked his first meeting with Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican who leads the United States’ largest trading partner.

Although Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had met with Trump several times before, trade talks were stopped.

Trump signaled this week that the United States is still considering whether to leave in place a single, long-standing free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico or look at separate bilateral agreements.

The agreement, known as USMCA, will be subject to mandatory review next year. Carney believed it protected Canadian businesses from many of the tariffs the United States imposed on Canada.

The underlying tensions seemed distant on Friday, when leaders took to the stage together to pick their respective countries’ balls from the bowls; This marked the beginning of a process to select groups for the first phase of the jointly organized tournament.

The body language of the leaders appeared friendly and warm. They took a group selfie on stage with FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Reporters later saw Trump sitting with Sheinbaum, who said he planned to hold a brief one-on-one meeting with Trump earlier in the week on the sidelines of events to discuss trade issues including steel, aluminum and auto tariffs.

The Trump administration has largely backed away from threats to impose higher tariffs while negotiations continue.

Carney was sitting next to Sheinbaum. Both have expressed interest in securing the future of the USMCA, which has been in effect in some form since 1994.

Its fate is uncertain until the outcome of the mandatory review, which is planned to be completed in the summer of 2026.

Trump also met briefly with Sheinbaum and Carney on Friday.

Sheinbaum said in a statement that they spoke separately about the World Cup and “agreed to continue to work with our teams on business issues.”

Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the United States would “either let the agreement expire or maybe work on another agreement with Mexico and Canada.”

He added that he believes both Canada and Mexico are “taking advantage” of the United States.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told news outlet Politico on Thursday that Trump is considering splitting the deal into two parts.

“Our relationship with the Canadian economy is completely different than our relationship with the Mexican economy,” Greer said. “It actually doesn’t make a lot of economic sense why we would marry these three together.”

The current USMCA agreement was signed by Trump during his first term. He praised it at the time as “the best deal we’ve ever made.”

American companies have so far signaled they want the trade deal to remain in place.

Speakers from agriculture, business and policy groups at a three-day public hearing to review the deal in Washington this week said the deal allows them access to Canadian and Mexican markets.

The World Cup draw also saw President Trump receiving the first-ever Fifa Peace Prize, which Infantino said was “in recognition of his exceptional and remarkable actions to promote peace and unity around the world.”

In brief remarks, Trump said the award was “one of the honors” of his life.