G20 trade ministers are meeting in Wisconsin. Many will be discussing deals without their U.S. host

G20 trade ministers are meeting in Wisconsin. Many will be discussing deals without their U.S. host

Canada aims to advance its diversification strategy, while Americans will push for WTO changes

When trade ministers from some of the world's largest economies gather in Wisconsin today, it will be hard to ignore the red white and blue elephant in the room.

Most of the officials attending the G20 trade ministers' meeting in Milwaukee find themselves in challenging positions, largely because of U.S. President Donald Trump's global tariff agenda.

Some, including Canada, have been forced to rethink and reshape trading relationships due to the new tariffs, barriers, and uncertainty imposed by the Trump administration as it pursues what it describes as an America-first agenda.

All of this makes for a potentially unusual summit, with high-level meetings on the sidelines where different countries discuss plans to work around the host.

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That is part of Canada's goal here, as it seeks to advance talks with global trading partners as the government works to reduce dependency on the U.S. economy where it can.

"In a more unpredictable world, trade diversification is Canada's Plan A," said International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu.

"In the past year, our non-U.S. trade has increased by 17 per cent, or $33 billion, and nearly one-third of Canadian exports now go to destinations outside the United States, the highest share in 40 years," he said in an email sent in response to multiple questions from CBC News.

Sidhu is leading the Canadian delegation, not Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, since this is a gathering of international counterparts.

While Sidhu is expected to cross paths with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the top Trump administration negotiator, this is not expected to be a forum to potentially resuscitate Canada-U.S. trade talks.

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Negotiations between the two countries broke down in August, after Canada rejected the latest U.S. deal. Greer and LeBlanc both say they have spoken by phone multiple times per week ever since, including as recently as last Friday.

The latest American shot against Canada in its trade war landed Tuesday, when an import ban on certain Canadians products, including most alcoholic drinks, came into effect.

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Sidhu said he has meetings planned with the delegations from the European Union and India, in the hopes of advancing negotiations with both trading partners.

"We are moving at pace to secure greater access to some of the world's largest and fastest-growing economies," he said.

The priorities of the Trump administration, including its tariff agenda, will be showcased over two days of meetings at the summit, according to a news release from the U.S. trade representative's office.

Among the discussions will be "eliminating forced labour in global supply chains" and "addressing structural and excess capacity and production," including a meeting dedicated to steel.

But the issue that stands out the most is the American push to change the World Trade Organization's Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) rules, says Martha Harrison, a Toronto-based trade lawyer who co-leads the international trade and investment team at McCarthy Tétrault.

To simplify a deeply technical and complicated system, the MFN principle is meant to prevent discriminating against another WTO member country.

"You have to give equal treatment to members of the WTO community," and "it has to be the same tariff rate across the board," Harrison told CBC News.

"It is not dramatic to say that if the MFN rule is softened … it will create distinctions and a trade environment globally that is even more unpredictable than it is now."

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The Trump administration has long complained about WTO rules, with Greer laying out his case for reform in an opinion essay published in August 2025 by the New York Times.

"The bulk of global manufacturing shifted to jurisdictions such as China, Vietnam, and Mexico where companies could exploit vulnerable workers or benefit from expansive state support while the United States ran up what in absolute terms is the highest trade deficit in the history of the world," Greer wrote.

"The rules of international trade cannot be a suicide pact," he continued, adding that the U.S. has "laid the foundation for a new global trading order," citing an agreement that the U.S. had just signed with the European Union.

Harrison said the U.S. position is that “MFN was designed for a world where countries broadly played by similar rules."

"Washington now argues that some countries benefit from WTO access while pursuing state-led industrial policies or maintaining non-market practices."

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However, changing the MFN rules would lead to more uncertainty and confusion for businesses that rely on international supply chains, Harrison said.

"It impacts, ultimately, not just the trading relationship between Canada and the U.S., but trading relationships around the world that are governed by the rules based system," she said.

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The WTO has long struggled to find ⁠agreement on reforms in the consensus-based organization, as its 166 members are at different stages of economic development and often have ​conflicting interests.

On Sept. 15, the organization urged its members to reform global trade rules or risk a slide into fragmentation that could significantly reduce ‌economic output and hit poorer countries hardest.

In its annual report, the WTO said existing rules have struggled to keep pace with shifts in economic power, the rise of industrial policy, digital trade and escalating political tensions between major powers.

Katie Simpson is a foreign correspondent with CBC News based in Washington. Prior to joining the team in D.C., she spent six years covering Parliament Hill in Ottawa and nearly a decade covering local and provincial issues in Toronto.