Greer disputes Canada’s account of heavy truck tariff talks

Jamieson Greer pointed out that medium and heavy trucks were the subject of a separate order from Trump than tariffs on lighter vehicles, making it a distinct issue. Photo by Jim WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

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United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said he was clear during recent negotiations with Canada that medium- and heavy-duty trucks would be excluded from tariff relief, as officials sparred again over which side was responsible for the failure of the talks.

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A week ago, Canada and the U.S. appeared to be making progress toward an interim agreement to reduce tariffs, but those discussions broke down over a number of issues, including duties on Canadian-made vehicles. The White House was willing to reduce them to 15 per cent from 25 per cent, but only for cars and light trucks.

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In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. broadcast on Wednesday, Greer addressed the breakdown and rejected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s characterization of what went wrong.

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“With respect to this issue of medium and heavy trucks, for weeks when I’ve been speaking with my Canadian colleagues, I’ve been clear about what we believe we could deliver, including about autos,” Greer said. He pointed out that medium and heavy trucks were the subject of a separate order from President Donald Trump than tariffs on lighter vehicles, making it a distinct issue.

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Carney has blamed the failure of negotiations on the Trump administration inserting late demands and using the draft text to narrow the scope of U.S. concessions. The prime minister has also said the Americans wanted Canada to relax rules that require streaming platforms to promote Canadian and French-language content.

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Greer, however, said the latter issue was never a “red line” for the U.S. American negotiators were much more concerned about a Canadian requirement that would force those entertainment platforms to contribute a portion of their revenues to Canadian content, he said.

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“This is something we talked about, but we showed a lot of flexibility,” Greer told the CBC. “It’s like the farthest thing from a red line. We were really focused on those taxes.”

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When negotiations faltered, the U.S. moved ahead with 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods that came into force on Saturday. Carney’s government announced retaliatory tariffs this week that will go into effect on Sept. 8. And in response to that, Trump threatened to increase tariffs on autos to 50 per cent on Jan. 1 and to add tariffs to Canadian auto parts.

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Greer said the U.S. would not “sit down and take” further retaliation from Canada.

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Asked whether he was still in contact with Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, he said that they “don’t have open channels right now.”

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Bloomberg News reported earlier this week that the Carney government sees little chance of resuming trade discussions before the U.S. midterm elections in November.

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