Canada's former top public servant Janice Charette will serve as the country's chief trade negotiator to the United States during a crucial review of the North American free-trade pact, Prime Minister Mark Carney's office announced on Monday.
Charette is a two-time clerk of the Privy Council and was high commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2021. She was also the top adviser on the transition team that ushered Carney into office.
Her appointment comes at a critical juncture in Canada-U.S. trade relations, in the lead-up to a major review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement that is due to start by July.
It also comes just a day after Mark Wiseman, a global investment banker and pension fund manager, took the reins as Canada's next ambassador to Washington.
Canada's last ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, recently stepped down so a fresh team could be assembled to take on the review of the trade pact. Hillman was the last chief trade negotiator.
A release from Carney's office said Charette will work closely with Wiseman and serve as a senior adviser to both the prime minister and Dominic LeBlanc, the minister in charge of Canada-U.S. trade, on the CUSMA review.
"As chief trade negotiator, she will advance Canadian interests and a strengthened trade and investment relationship that benefits workers and industries in both Canada and the United States," Carney said in a statement sent to media.
U.S. President Donald Trump has slammed Canada with tariffs in key sectors in a dispute that has dragged out over the past year. The president is expected to adopt a hardball approach during the coming CUSMA review and his administration has suggested withdrawing from the pact remains an option on the table.
The federal Conservatives were quick to pan Charette's appointment, arguing the government should have been able to reach a deal with Trump by now.
"Canadian workers and businesses need the deal that Mark Carney promised and he and Dominic LeBlanc have failed to get for a year," deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman said in an emailed statement. "We don't need another bureaucrat or negotiator. We need results for the thousands of auto, lumber and steelmaking jobs lost to the United States."
At the G7 summit last summer, Carney and Trump agreed they would move ahead with trade negotiations and aim to reach a deal by July 21 — a deadline that was eventually pushed back and then blown entirely.
Progress on removing U.S. tariffs on key Canadian sectors was scuttled last fall when Trump erupted over an anti-tariff television ad campaign launched by Ontario. The ads presented American viewers with clips of former president Ronald Reagan warning of damaging economic consequences from tariffs.
Carney said in the aftermath that before Trump abruptly froze talks, Ottawa and Washington were close to reaching a deal on steel, aluminum and energy.
Sector-specific discussions on tariffs are now expected to be rolled into formal talks about the renewal of the continental free-trade pact.
Ottawa is seeking a 16-year extension of the agreement and is angling to limit the scope of the review.
Charette had retired from her career in the public service in summer 2023, and last fall became an adviser at the Business Council of Canada lobby group.
She was appointed clerk of the Privy Council in 2014 by former prime minister Stephen Harper and served in the government's top job until 2016. Charette returned to the role from 2021 to 2023.
While her career behind the scenes in government put her at the nexus of many key files and decisions that would routinely cross the prime minister's desk, she would go on to become a known public figure to supporters of the so-called "Freedom Convoy."
In 2022, when a trucker convoy descended on the nation's capital to voice opposition to COVID-19 public-health restrictions, Charette approved a memo to then-prime minister Justin Trudeau recommending he invoke the Emergencies Act, considering the matter a national emergency.
The convoy had by that point occupied downtown Ottawa, jammed up traffic and spurred a flurry of complaints from the public about incidents of harassment. Protesters had also simultaneously blockaded Canada-U.S. border crossings.
The convoy notably received vocal support from Trump, a number of prominent Republicans and many Fox News hosts — and attracted significant media attention for donations that poured in from the U.S. in support of the protesters.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
