Canada trade negotiator: don’t expect tariff-free trade with US to return

The significance here is the framing: a lead negotiator publicly lowering expectations suggests the tariff structure is being treated as a durable baseline rather than a bargaining phase to be unwound. That matters most for cross-border supply chains and sectors whose margins were built on duty-free access, since planning assumptions, not just costs, would need revising. With no figures or timeline attached, the substance is directional only. The open question is whether this expectation-setting hardens into formal policy or remains a negotiating posture.