The U.S did not target Quebec’s French language rules on products in the final stages of trade talks, coming in contradiction to what Premier Christine Fréchette told reporters, according to two Canadian government sources familiar with the negotiations.
The dispute was over rules requiring streaming platforms to give Canadian-made content more prominence in Canada, including French-language content, with the U.S. wanting those rules scaled back, the sources said. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, meanwhile, maintained Wednesday that French was not a dealbreaker for them and the U.S. did not seek final changes to the deal.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Mark Carney disclosed that, among the handful of reasons he had pulled out of trade negotiations, U.S. demands threatened Canadian language and culture, including French.
Asked for specifics, Fréchette a couple hours later told reporters: “For example, the presence of French on consumer goods, on electronic devices such as household appliances, or the availability of instruction manuals in French. … All of this, it would seem, were elements that were proposed for negotiation by the American side,” she told reporters.
She called it a “red line.”
But when Fréchette spoke to reporters Saturday afternoon, she had not yet been briefed on the specifics of the negotiations, one of the sources said. Prime Minister Mark Carney briefed the premiers after Fréchette’s press conference.
The French issue went on to become the latest flashpoint in Canada-U.S. relations, and as the two countries then imposed billions of dollars more in tariffs on each other’s goods, American officials took aim at Carney specifically over the matter.
U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media Tuesday: “I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing.
“I love French Canadians!” he added.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, too, denied that French had been directly targeted, calling it a “funny, fake story” on Monday. He added that the Americans’ objections were to regulations affecting American technology companies and Canadian-content requirements.
Speaking to CBC on Wednesday, Greer, who speaks French himself, acknowledged that the French-language issue had come up during the negotiations but said the Americans had flexibility on the matter and know it is “important to Quebec.”
“There is no way we would let a good deal go by for something like this,” he said. “This is not something where we push hard or condition or red line. It’s like the farthest thing from a red line.”
Trump was also asked this week about the last-minute U.S. demands in a CNN interview. “That sounds like me,” he replied.
Still, Greer dismissed Trump’s remark as “off the cuff.” He also denied other Canadian claims, like that Washington had sought an outright restriction on Canada’s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.
On the dispute, one Canadian source said there appeared to be a “misunderstanding” with the Americans over the impact of removing content requirements on Canadian culture, especially on French, as it is a minority language in Canada, prompting Carney to flag the item as an issue and as a matter of “protecting Canadian sovereignty.”
For Fréchette, who replaced François Legault as Coalition Avenir Québec party leader and premier in April, the controversy also comes ahead of a provincial election in October. Quebecers will go to the polls on Oct. 5, with the official election campaign launch expected Thursday. Her party sits in third place in the latest polls, though it has gained in recent weeks owing — according to some analysts — to the tariff dispute.
The Gazette reached out to the premier’s office for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose party leads in the polls, questioned whether Ottawa had overstated its claims about defending the French language, saying negotiators had an obligation to “say the truth.”
“It is our interests at stake, and that’s the problem,” he said.
Previously, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is the federal agency responsible for American trade policy, singled out Quebec’s Bill 96 — requiring French to appear on products sold in Quebec — in its annual report on barriers faced by U.S. exporters, citing concerns about its effect on trademarks. U.S. officials even raised the law at the World Trade Organization in 2024.
In March, the U.S. Trade Representative also identified Bill 109 as a potential trade barrier. It regulates how French-language cultural content is made available and promoted online.
The agency said the law could impose separate provincial investment and discoverability requirements on streaming services and device manufacturers, with possible implications for the Canada-United States-Mexico free-trade agreement.
Mega-tech companies Netflix, Spotify, Apple and YouTube were among the companies that submitted briefs opposing the law, arguing that separate Quebec requirements could increase costs and force platforms to change their catalogues, recommendation systems and interfaces for the provincial market.
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I’ve been writing for the Montreal Gazette since 2023. My favourite stories are ones that make you think and I’m always looking for new ways to tell them. At McGill, I studied economics and computer science. Now I live in the city’s Plateau, where I wear Doc Martens to try and blend in among the hipsters. Got a story? Email me.
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