OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Monday the federal government is preparing for the 2026 review of the free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, but is staying mum on whether Canada is willing to open that deal up any earlier, as a way to mitigate U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday vowed to "defend free trade as the basis of our prosperity", a day after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs and taxes on trade partners.

The US’s economic partners are racing to sustain trade volumes in a Donald Trump era by closing new bilateral deals and rerouting supply chains to cope with increased US protectionism. Policymakers and trade experts say countries are turning to a tactic deployed during the US president’s first term in office,