U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade negotiator hinted Wednesday that the United States and Canada remain at odds on trade policy as the deadline for renewing the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement draws closer, accusing Canada of “doubling down on globalization.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer made the comments while testifying at the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, where he faced several questions about how he was approaching the review of CUSMA, which requires all three countries to agree by July 1 on whether to renew, withdraw from or keep renegotiating the North American trade pact.
Greer said he was particularly focused on strengthening and broadening rules of origin that prevent third countries like China from importing subsidized goods into the North American market, where they can then cross borders tariff-free. He said Mexico has already agreed to do its part in improving those rules.
Asked if Canada has made similar commitments and is “playing by the rules,” Greer said “a little bit” in regards to steel but then pointed to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to diversify Canada’s trading relationships.
“Overall, they’ve indicated that they want to be trading more, they want to have more trade agreements with more countries,” Greer said.
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“They’re doubling down on globalization when we’re trying to correct for the problems of globalization. So those are two models that don’t fit together very well.”
Greer added that “if the Canadians don’t want to have the rule of origin” on additional sectors beyond automobiles, “then we’ll have to have some other border control to make sure that we aren’t disadvantaged.”
Earlier Wednesday, Carney said “no” when asked by reporters if Canada was willing to make any additional concessions in trade talks.
“We understand what some of the – what the Americans would call trade irritants or trade issues – are. We have some on our side as well,” he said.
Carney has stressed the importance of expanding trade with several other countries — including China — in order to reduce reliance on the U.S., which government figures say accounts for 75 per cent of Canada’s exports.
Other Trump administration officials, including U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and experts like Michael Kovrig have criticized Carney for seeking closer ties with China in response to Trump’s tariffs and policy demands on Canada.
Lutnick said last week that Trump views CUSMA as “a bad deal” and that it needs to be “re-imagined.”
Greer, who has previously suggested CUSMA could be replaced with separate bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico, has also said it’s “unlikely” an agreement will come by the July 1 deadline.
He said Wednesday that there are “load-bearing pillars” in CUSMA that are working well but added that a renegotiation is necessary in order to address U.S. concerns.
“I don’t think we want to rubber-stamp it,” he told the committee.
He also said there were opportunities to make the dispute mechanism within CUSMA more efficient, and suggested the Trump administration would make use of it.
“I think even more important than making sure the mechanism works is making sure we have the political will to actually enforce the agreement,” he said.
“Mexico and Canada have to understand that we will act if they don’t honour their commitments.”
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