Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on the United States are an ongoing “problem” for trade negotiations, U.S. President Donald Trump‘s trade envoy said Tuesday as next month’s deadline to renew the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade (CUSMA) draws ever closer.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox Business he’s focused on addressing “flaws” in the trade pact signed during Trump’s first term, particularly loopholes exploited by countries like China surrounding rules of origin for products traded within North America.
He said formal talks were progressing with Mexico on how to ensure the country isn’t being used as a “third-country hub” by others to get their products into the continent tariff-free under CUSMA.
“We would expect the same for Canada, when we’re able to get to some kind of an arrangement with them,” Greer said. “Right now they have a different approach to the United States. They have some retaliatory tariffs still in effect and that makes it a problem for us to negotiate.”
Last fall, Canada removed its retaliatory tariffs on most U.S. products under CUSMA, one of several concessions that Ottawa’s chief trade negotiator Janice Charette said in April have been made to get trade talks back on track.
However, counter-tariffs remain on over 300 U.S. steel, aluminum and auto products in retaliation for Trump’s duties on those sectors.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said last week after what he called a “positive” meeting with Greer in Washington that Canada is aiming to get the U.S. sectoral tariffs removed.
Greer on Tuesday defended those tariffs as necessary to boost domestic manufacturing in targeted industries.
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The retaliatory tariffs are the latest trade irritant that Greer has cited for why talks with Canada have been slower than those with Mexico.
He previously blamed provincial bans on U.S. alcohol and efforts to tax American tech companies, as well as Canada’s efforts to improve trade ties with China that included a deal to import a limited number of Chinese electric vehicles.
The tensions come as Canada, the U.S. and Mexico face a July 1 deadline to renew CUSMA for another 16 years. If they fail to do so, the agreement would need to be reviewed annually for up to 10 years before a long-term renewal can be achieved.
LeBlanc formally wrote to his American and Mexican counterparts last week that Canada is prepared for a 16-year renewal of CUSMA and urged them to agree.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters earlier Tuesday in Washington, where he was meeting with U.S. lawmakers and business leaders, that he was focused on securing a speedy renewal while further improving trade and security ties.
“Let’s get a deal done,” he said. “If we get this deal done, both economies are going to boom, the likes of which either country’s never seen before, because no one likes the uncertainty.”
In Ottawa, Finance Minister Francois-Phillipe Champagne told reporters after a cabinet meeting that Ford’s message was the same as the federal government’s.
“It’s always good to have Team Canada talking about the benefit of the relationship,” he said.
“You know, when I go to Washington, I said, ‘I hope you’re happy to see us because we’re your largest customer.’ And I think, in that context, putting the emphasis on the positive and saying, ‘We’re your largest customers, two-thirds of your states needs to have Canada as their first market,’ these things are the kind of message you want to see in Washington.”
Conservative finance critic Jasraj Singh Hallan, however, said the various trips to the United States are not producing results.
“I’m not really sure about what trade talks are happening right now,” he told reporters in Ottawa. “We hear that there’s trips to the U.S., but there’s nothing that materializes when they come back.
“Everything is on the line. Our economy is on the line, Canadian paycheques are on the line. They need to get a deal done.”
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