U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday held Canada responsible for last week’s breakdown in trade deal negotiations, telling CNBC that Ottawa changed its demands at the 11th hour.
“On Tuesday night, we reached a point where we could say that we had enough agreement between the parties to say that we found a path to an agreement,” Greer said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“Then we tried to finalize it, and in the last few hours, I think there was more that Canadians wanted,” he said.
The comments echo those of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who accused the US of proposing “last-minute changes” that are “unfair, uneconomic and call into question the credibility of any agreement”.
Greer spoke to CNBC three days after Canadian negotiators left Washington without a deal to block President Donald Trump’s imposition of new 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of items, including imports such as wine, hockey sticks and cement.
The mandates go into effect Saturday at 12:01 a.m. ET and have prompted alarm from U.S. and Canadian business groups alike, who say they could raise costs and wreak havoc on at-risk industries.
Secretary Carney said Canada would retaliate with “dollar for dollar” tariffs against the United States.
Greer said Monday morning that the trade tensions “started” when Canada restricted sales of U.S. alcohol, automobiles and dairy products last year. Canada imposed these trade barriers in response to President Trump’s tariffs, which have questioned free trade agreements and defended heavy import taxes.
In response to Canada’s refusal to remove these barriers, Mr. Greer said, “We proposed a very customized tariff that would cover about 5% of what comes out of Canada.”
Although the new 50% tariffs cover only a fraction of total U.S.-Canada trade, business groups argue that the consumer-focused list of targeted products will cause significant harm to exposed sellers.
“The impact on small businesses will be immediate and significant,” Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement Saturday.
Greer said that in recent negotiations, the U.S. “cut tariffs in half on steel and aluminum, significantly lowered tariffs on things like automobiles and softwood lumber, and made some accommodations for Canada in an effort to make things easier for Canada.”
“They simply wanted more,” he says.
“I don’t know if it was political for them. It certainly doesn’t make economic sense, but there are probably political reasons,” Greer added. “I don’t know, but they came in and wanted more and we were ready for that.”
The Canadian dollar fell against the US dollar on Monday morning.
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