Canada and the US have discussed critical minerals and defence in their continuing trade talks, and progress on those areas is expected to influence a trade deal the two sides are aiming to close next week, Globe and Mail reports, citing sources

Sourced reports of this kind from national outlets have been a recurring feature of the bilateral trade file, and the pattern is familiar: anonymous progress claims ahead of a self-imposed deadline, with the substance of any deal often thinner than the framing. What distinguishes this readout is the content rather than the currency of it; critical minerals and defence are strategic carve-outs that in past North American negotiations have been traded against tariff relief elsewhere, so their inclusion signals the talks are operating at the level of sectoral exemptions rather than a comprehensive reset. The distinction that matters for the FX leg is between a deal that removes existing tariff overhang, which has historically supported the Canadian currency through the terms-of-trade channel, and one that merely freezes escalation, which has tended to produce only a brief relief move. The named deadline next week is itself a tell: deadlines in these talks have been moved before, and slippage has typically been the default outcome. Worth noting is the source chain, a single national paper citing unnamed sources, which in prior episodes has sometimes reflected one side negotiating through the press. The follow-ons are official confirmation or denial from either government and whether the minerals and defence language survives into any signed text.