U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer speaks with reporters at the White House in October, 2025.Kylie Cooper/Reuters
The United States trade representative says a potential deal with Canada must include higher tariffs and increased access for Americans as officials from both countries plan to meet in the coming weeks in advance of a high-stakes review of the North American free-trade pact.
Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, told U.S. television networks that U.S. and Canadian trade officials spoke on Wednesday and that the Trump administration was open to Canada’s ideas on how to reach an agreement.
But he also told CBC News in an interview after U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday that Canada, like other countries, must also accept “protective tariffs” in a bid to reshore American industries.
“If Canada wants to agree that we can have some level of higher tariff on them while they open up their markets to us on things like dairy and other things, then that’s a helpful conversation,” Mr. Greer told the CBC.
The meetings in Washington are happening as Canada prepares for a review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), amid reports that Mr. Trump may be looking to exit the deal or pursue bilateral agreements.
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Negotiations over the future of the USMCA are already under way. The three countries are working toward a July 1 deadline, at which point they have to decide whether to renew it for another 16 years or enter into annual reviews. They can also withdraw from the agreement with six months notice.
Canada has been hit by punishing duties on industries such as steel, aluminum and autos, but most goods remain tariff-free because of the USMCA. A small portion of products that aren’t covered by the USMCA are being hit with a new 10-per-cent duty – down from 35 per cent, because of last week’s Supreme Court decision that struck down a key tool used by Mr. Trump to impose tariffs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said Wednesday he hadn’t watched Mr. Trump’s speech, has scaled back the vast majority of Canada’s Trudeau-era countertariffs on the U.S., in a bid to revive trade talks.
Mr. Greer’s comments drew the ire of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who floated the idea on Wednesday that if the U.S. insists on higher tariffs, Canada should do the same.
“I can tell you one thing: A tariff on Canada is a tax on Americans. They know it. They’re feeling the crunch down there,” Mr. Ford told reporters at a hospital announcement in Niagara Falls.
“They want to tariff us, I say we tariff them back.”
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He suggested products such as high-grade nickel, potash, aluminum and even road salt should top the list.
“It doesn’t work folks. When you have a protectionist government like President Trump, it fails every single time. Ronald Reagan is spinning in his grave right now,” he said, referring to the late U.S. president whose speech was used in Ontario’s anti-tariff advertisement last fall, which Mr. Trump cited as the reason he was cancelling previous trade talks with Canada.
Mr. Greer told Fox Business that he spoke with his trade counterpart earlier on Wednesday and that they would meet in Washington “in a couple weeks.”
Gabriel Brunet, a spokesperson for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, said that Mr. LeBlanc and Mr. Greer “had a number of brief, informal exchanges in recent days about a potential in-person meeting in Washington D.C. in the near future.”
“Minister LeBlanc looks forward to continuing to work with Ambassador Greer as we undertake the joint review of the CUSMA,” Mr. Brunet said in a statement, using another name for the USMCA.
He declined to comment on Mr. Ford’s push for retaliation.
In Ottawa, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters that because of the USMCA, Canada is in a better position compared with other countries.
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But he acknowledged tariffs are a reality.
“I think it is pretty well understood now in the world that the view of the American administration is that there will be a price to access the American market,” he said.
“Every country of the world that I know of is paying a price. What I’m saying is that Canada is paying the lowest price.”
In his interview with CBC, Mr. Greer said Canada has expressed an interest in having “some kind of alternative deal” on trade, but added the U.S. is focused on reshoring supply chains related to automotive, steel and aluminum.
He also expressed concerns about the USMCA in its current form, saying that it doesn’t present enough opportunity for American businesses.
“If we want to have that deal, you need to have better rules, stricter rules, to make sure that there’s more U.S. content in what we have,” he said.
He added that the U.S. doesn’t want countries such as Vietnam and China to be able to export items through Canada into the U.S. duty-free.
“We know that Canada has talked about having closer ties, economic ties, with China. I don’t want a situation where Canada is being used as a backdoor for Chinese goods.”
With reports from Bill Curry in Ottawa, Reuters and The Canadian Press