U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday blamed Canada for the breakdown of last-minute tariff negotiations, saying Ottawa sought additional concessions after the two sides had nearly sealed a deal. The failure triggered 50 percent tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods that took effect Saturday.
“We progressed to a point Tuesday night where we had enough agreement among the parties to announce that we had found the way to a deal,” Greer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Then we set about to finalise it, and then in the last hours, I think there were things that the Canadians just — you know, they wanted more.”
Greer said the United States had offered substantial relief, including cutting steel and aluminum tariffs in half, reducing auto duties, and easing pressure on softwood lumber, while preparing to suspend the new 50 percent levies. He suggested Canada’s extra demands may have been political rather than economic.
Canadian negotiators left Washington on Friday without an agreement. Prime Minister Mark Carney offered a sharply different account. He said the United States introduced “last-minute changes” that were “unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.” Carney suspended talks, recalled his team, and pledged dollar-for-dollar retaliation.
The new U.S. tariffs cover products including dairy, wine, hockey sticks, cement, furniture and wood goods. They form the latest chapter in a year-long trade dispute under President Donald Trump. Both sides had described progress earlier in the week before the talks collapsed in the final hours.
No new negotiations are scheduled. Greer described the affected trade volume as limited relative to overall U.S. consumption, while Carney framed the measures as an attack requiring a matching response. The $1 trillion bilateral relationship now faces heightened strain as retaliatory actions take shape.
