U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said outstanding issues with Canada are “quite difficult to resolve” as the G20 trade ministers’ meeting came to a close in Milwaukee on Thursday.
Greer and Canada’s International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu had a pull-aside conversation at the summit Wednesday. Sidhu said he raised Canada-U.S. trade with Greer, along with other matters such as World Trade Organization reforms.
Speaking with reporters Thursday, Greer said the sticking points between the two countries remain.
“We certainly have technical talks with the Canadians. The reality is there are a handful of outstanding issues that are quite difficult to resolve,” he said.
Greer was asked if the U.S. is holding technical talks with U.S. automakers about imposing a 50 per cent tariff on Canada’s auto sector on Jan. 1 if there is no deal between the two countries.
He replied that the focus of U.S. trade policy is on re-shoring manufacturing.
When asked about Canada and other countries using the meeting to discuss other trade deals, Greer said he’s fine with that but insisted they can’t replace the U.S. as a customer.
“When people talk about Canada and the European Union somehow finding more demand in their countries, I mean, these are very low growth jurisdictions. And low growth plus low growth is still low growth,” Greer said.
“So we are actually totally fine with countries trying to find other people to take their surplus production. Like, that’s fine with us. We’re actually trying to increase domestic production.”
Discussing trade tensions between Canada and the United States on Bloomberg news early Thursday, Greer said the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is open to making a deal with Canada but is “not inclined to go to zero tariffs.”
Greer said the question remains whether Canada is willing to say “yes on some of these things.”
Greer added his main point of contact on trade talks is Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and said they speak frequently.
The U.S. trade ambassador took shots at his G20 counterparts over their failure to come up with a consensus statement at the meeting on the use of forced labour in supply chains.
“Believe it or not, we have countries in the G20 that do not want to commit to having a prohibition on the import of goods made with forced labour,” Greer said.
The U.S. imposed 10 per cent tariffs on 60 economies, including Canada and the EU, after saying they did not take adequate steps to remove forced labour from their supply chains earlier this year.
Sidhu was scheduled to have formal one-on-one meetings with his counterparts from the European Union, India and Brazil on Thursday.
Ahead of the summit, Sidhu said Canada’s key priorities for the meeting included advancing a digital trade agreement with the European Union, advancing talks with the South American trade bloc Mercosur, and working on an economic partnership agreement with India.
Sidhu held formal meetings with his French, Australian and Turkish counterparts Wednesday.
This meeting is being held ahead of the annual G20 summit set for Miami on Dec. 14 and 15.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2026
David Baxter, The Canadian Press
