Canada yet to accept Trump’s tariffs to stay despite CUSMA: U.S. trade rep

U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade czar says there will be tariffs in place on Mexico and Canada even though the countries are part of a continental trade pact.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations today, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was asked about the state of negotiations with Ottawa around the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA.

The Trump administration has begun official negotiations with Mexico but they haven’t started with Canada.

Greer says most nations have begrudgingly accepted some level of tariffs but Canada’s approach has been different.

Greer says Canada is in a “different spot” when it comes to accepting Trump’s tariffs and it’s “hard to see where that ends.”

Greer says some areas of negotiations with Canada will be challenging — pointing to the automobile sector — but others will not be as hard.