Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. has suffered a $200-million blow from the ongoing tariff war set off by the United States, said CEO Keith Creel, who nonetheless remained upbeat amid ongoing doubts about the North American free trade pact.

“We’ve already absorbed a pretty significant hit from all the uncertainty — I think about $200 million of revenue impact, maybe higher,” Creel told analysts on a conference call. 

The chief executive, who helms the only railroad to span all three countries on the continent, said the upcoming renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement can be mutually beneficial while also rejigging cargo flows to reduce the trade deficit that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly cited as a source of aggravation.  

“Positive renewal of the USMCA can be true at the same time, because trade between these three nations, even if it gets rebalanced a bit, is critically important to all three nations’ success. We depend upon each other,” he said.

The chief executive expressed hope that the deal, which has seen trilateral trade more than quadruple to over $1.6 trillion since the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect in 1994, would be renewed this summer. 

In its latest quarter, CPKC managed to nudge up revenue by 1% to $3.92 billion, partly on the back of improved operating efficiency and in line with a slight boost in freight volumes.

Despite a revenue uptick that capped off a year of solid earnings increases, CPKC said profits fell 10% in its latest quarter. Net income declined to $1.08 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $1.20 billion in the same period a year earlier.

For the full year, net income jumped 11% to $4.14 billion, and revenues climbed almost 4%to $15.08 billion.

– The Canadian Press contributed to this article.