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

It was all smiles at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC as the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada took the stage for the 2026 World Cup draw, even as trade tensions simmered in the background.

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

While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has already met with Trump on several occasions, trade talks have stopped.

This week, Trump noted that the United States is still weighing whether to maintain a single long-standing free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico or consider separate bilateral agreements.

The agreement, known as T-MEC, will undergo a mandatory review next year. Carney credits him with protecting Canadian businesses from the bulk of the tariffs imposed by the United States on Canada.

Those underlying tensions seemed distant on Friday, when the leaders took the stage together to select their own countries’ bocce balls, marking the beginning of a process to select groups for the initial stage of the jointly organized tournament.

The leaders’ body language seemed cordial and warm. Together they posed for a selfie with FIFA President Gianni Infantino on stage.

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

The Trump administration has largely backed away from threats to impose high tariffs as 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 pending the outcome of the mandatory review that must be completed in the summer of 2026.

Trump also met for a brief 45 minutes with Sheinbaum and Carney on Friday.

In a statement, Sheinbaum said that they talked about the World Cup and separately “agreed to continue working together on commercial issues with our teams.”

Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the United States will “let it expire or maybe we’ll work out another deal with Mexico and Canada.”

He added that he believed that both Canada and Mexico had “taken advantage” of the United States.

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

“Our relationship with the Canadian economy is totally different than our relationship with the Mexican economy,” Greer said, adding: “It doesn’t really make much economic sense why we would marry those three together.”

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

So far, American companies have signaled that they want the trade deal to remain in place.

At a three-day public hearing on the upcoming review of the agreement in Washington this week, speakers from agricultural, business and political groups said it has allowed them access to the Canadian and Mexican markets.

In the World Cup draw, President Trump also received the first FIFA Peace Prize, which Infantino said was “in recognition of his exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world.”

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