\u201cI love French Canadians!\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, too, denied that French had been directly targeted, calling it a \u201cfunny, fake story\u201d on Monday. He added that the Americans\u2019 objections were to regulations affecting American technology companies and Canadian-content requirements.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cimportant to Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no way we would let a good deal go by for something like this,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not something where we push hard or condition or red line. It\u2019s like the farthest thing from a red line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump was also asked this week about the last-minute U.S. demands in a CNN interview. \u201cThat sounds like me,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
Still, Greer dismissed Trump\u2019s remark as \u201coff the cuff.\u201d He also denied other Canadian claims, like that Washington had sought an outright restriction on Canada\u2019s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.<\/p>\n
On the dispute, one Canadian source said there appeared to be a \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d 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 \u201cprotecting Canadian sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Fr\u00e9chette, who replaced Fran\u00e7ois Legault as Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec 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<\/a>. Her party sits in third place in the latest polls<\/a>, though it has gained in recent weeks owing \u2014 according to some analysts \u2014 to the tariff dispute.<\/p>\n The Gazette reached out to the premier\u2019s office for comment but did not receive a response before publication.<\/p>\n Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois 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 \u201csay the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is our interests at stake, and that\u2019s the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Previously, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is the federal agency responsible for American trade policy, singled out Quebec\u2019s Bill 96 \u2014 requiring French to appear on products sold in Quebec \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Do you have a story tip? Write to me: hnorth@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n
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