U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer: 'Expect action soon' on sweeping new tariffs

[00:00:00]President Trump signing three pro proclamations uh yesterday to impose 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods and those would take effect in 30 days. Joining us now Jameson Greer, US trade representative. Uh it's good to see you.

[00:00:15]>> Um >> morning. How are you?

[00:00:17]>> Call you Mr. Ambassador. We'll call you uh how about Jameson. Uh is Jameson. All right.

[00:00:22]You've been on many times.

[00:00:26]>> Yeah. Good to see you, Joe. Appreciate you having me on.

[00:00:29]What the couple of questions I guess come to mind. What was the tipping point to do uh to do this in terms of its it's reciprocal there that something uh got got the president's eye about something?

[00:00:43]Can you describe exactly what it was and why these uh very targeted uh tariffs affecting hockey sticks and uh some things that that maybe we wouldn't think of immediately? Well, let me give you just a little bit of history, Joe, on this issue. Uh, in April of 2025, as you know, the president embarked on a new trade policy really designed at reshoring manufacturing production to the United States and getting the trade deficit down after exploding for for decades. Of all the countries and we imposed tariffs on on all the world at varying levels of all the countries who retaliated against the United States, one was the People's Republic of China and the other was Canada. Some of the things they did is they banned the sale of US liquor and other booze on Canadian shelves. They capped and limited the amount of autos that could be shipped to the United States from companies who were reshoring to the US. And they also uh continued to maintain limited uh space for market access for US dairy.

[00:01:46]But importantly, they give other countries better deals on each of these three issues. And so it was a natural consequence after a year of these measures being in place. and longer in the case of dairy for the president to take action. Uh these are responses to this retaliation. We've been asking for a year for the Canadians to remove these, to modify them, to adjust them.

[00:02:05]They haven't done that. And so we have a tailored action that covers a subset of Canadian goods. Uh we aren't banning the goods like the Canadians have banned American alcohol. We're not putting a cap on them or limiting them like they've done to cars and dairy. uh but we have a tariff uh that which is again is a natural consequence of the Canadian retaliation which has endured for a long time.

[00:02:28]>> Did did either the the the things that the actions that Canada has been taking or these reciprocs here are either of them um not allowable under the current reading of the USMCA?

[00:02:46]So for the dairy for example, uh the United States has we're very competitive in dairy production in cheese and we and the Canadians made a commitment to us under the USMCA to allow us access under certain types of quotas. Uh however, in implementing that access, they have said you can only sell essentially to co-ops which are owned by Canadian dairy farmers who obviously have less of an incentive to to get American dairy. But when you look at the EU, they allow EU dairy not only to go to those destinations, but they can also sell them to retail, to wholesale, to food service. That's the kind of access we expected out of USMCA and that we're not getting. Uh the the the prohibition on wine and spirits that's again that's not permitted under our trade agreements.

[00:03:30]People will come and they'll say, well, the United States has taken, you know, trade actions on Canada, etc. We've taken actions consistent with our national security to make sure that we can reshore and support our auto supply chains which are under attack by China and and and excess capacity worldwide.

[00:03:47]We're protecting our steel and aluminum.

[00:03:49]Other countries are taking similar actions to protect their steel products.

[00:03:52]So the types of things we're doing are overdue. Uh no one has retaliated against us except China and Canada. So we're taking a targeted measure to counter that retaliation. So the the you know Mark Carney said the prime minister said that the the new tariffs are the latest in a series of unilateral uh US trade act actions that do violate the US MCA and Canada has been making a lot of detailed proposals to try to resolve uh some of these issues uh and they stand ready to engage. Is is that do you think that that's not true? Is he distorting or or uh >> well the Canadians have always >> well well the Canadians have always been been willing to engage if engagement means talking and meeting we've done that I've done that I have a good relationship with my counterparts there uh when he talks about these proposals I won't go into detail because I want to respect the confidentiality but what I will say is the proposals are generally uh for promises to discuss these issues which we're already doing not to not to actually change these things uh They talk about collaboration on energy.

[00:05:00]We've never had tariffs on Canadian energy. We've always been open to that and that kind of exploration. So, the types of things that have been in these proposals have always been, let's talk, let's keep trading in energy. Things we already do, things that do not fundamentally commit to resolve these issues. Maybe just talk about them some more. And and for us, we want them fixed.

[00:05:20]>> What do we What do you think the president feels we should do with USMCA?

[00:05:27]What what will be the end result? Do you know?

[00:05:30]>> Well, what what I would say first of all, as you know, the president elected not to renew USMCA and in some ways he has already overwhelmed elements of that agreement with actions he's taken again on auto, steel, and aluminum, which are global in nature, but obviously affect our relationship with Canada and Mexico.

[00:05:49]One of the things he wants to see with Canada, Mexico is he wants our deficit to go down with these countries. Uh with Canada, it has gone down over the past year. with Mexico, it's gone up. Our global trade deficit overall, if you're measuring uh you know the the 12 months before the tariff program started in April 2025 and the 12 months afterward, the trade deficit globally has gone down, which is good. But the composition of that deficit has changed. So that's his number one goal. We want the outcomes to make sense. We want to have more auto manufacturing here and and we're seeing it, Joe. Uh one of the reasons why the Canadians impose their measures is because we've seen lines, production lines come from Canada back to the US. We're seeing Toyota and others move from Mexico to the US. Uh that's what we want. So that's the outcome that he wants. I think also if we can have an arrangement with Mexico, with Canada that we are trying to emphasize Canadian, Mexican, US content in goods traded in North America, that's a good outcome because that helps get supply chains back here in North America.

[00:06:48]>> Sometimes it it almost does seem like the whole uh the whole world we could talk about. How about let's just talk about the EU and this loan to Airbus. So it's not just that that President Trump feels like we've been harmed in this case. Boeing is asking the US uh to intervene. What can you tell us about that?

[00:07:08]>> So we have had for a few years an understanding with the European Union that neither side would have unfair subsidies. Uh there was a World Trade Organization dispute about this where the United States won in a big way. Uh the EU themselves had a case against us with Boeing uh which was a much smaller case, but the reality is we've had a we've had a settlement with the EU for many years. Uh however, this is coming on the heels of of that settlement. The EU has announced this loan. We're looking at it very closely. I've made representations to my counterpart in the European Commission. We're speaking with Boeing about this. We don't mind fair competition. We welcome fair competition. Uh that being said, we can't accept a situation where companies don't have to operate under market-based systems, where Boeing has to operate and compete against an Airbus that gets unfair loans or or or loans that are um uh unfair with respect to everything that we're trying to do in America. We want to make sure that our companies can compete on a level playing field and if the European Union is giving unfair loans, then we need to take care of it and address it. the the latest uh and once again switching gears, the latest is that there are AI advances being made in China, maybe that they're surprising that either bring us bring the that country up to up to par with the United States or or even maybe ahead in in certain areas.

[00:08:31]Do we need to do things uh in terms of of new trade actions there? Where does it stand? We haven't we haven't heard much lately about uh proposed uh remedies for things like this.

[00:08:43]>> So this is an emergent issue uh where China is going with artificial intelligence. They're clearly our key competitor in the world on this issue.

[00:08:52]This is something that a number of US government agencies are looking at and collaborating on. Whether it's uh Mike Katzios and the office of science technology policy in the white house, commerce department, treasury department, war department, we look at it. uh we are concerned when we see allegations that China is distilling our models to use theirs. We know that this is something that's going on. Uh we we see that as a form of uh force technology transfer or or IP theft in a sense. Uh we also know that they subsidize energy production that's going into their AI. We know uh that they are getting an unfair advantage in a lot of these ways. They're promoting certain types of open AI standards that uh make it actually really cheap uh for others to to use them. And I I think because we're in this emergent situation, I don't think we're necessarily against one type of standard or another, but I think we're taking a very close look at how China is propagating its AI development to make sure that our companies compete again on a level playing field. Ambassador, could you just clarify how you think our relationship with Canada stands right now, particularly with the US MCA with that not being renewed for 16 years?

[00:10:01]Where where where would you say the state of things are between the two nations right now?

[00:10:06]>> Well, first of all, one thing to remember is we have always had trade issues with Canada. It's always been the most contentious part of our relationship across decades. uh whether it's with softwood lumber or you know 20 30 years ago with trade in in grains and and pork across the borders. So it's it's not new to have trade tensions with Canada. Uh I would say going forward I'm going to keep talking to my counterparts in Canada. The prime minister put out a letter yesterday responding to the president's action. His letter was uh you know firm but but moderate in tone.

[00:10:38]So they haven't cut off talks. We're going to keep discussing with them. The reality is we want outcomes that are good for American workers and American businesses and we're going to pursue those. Sometimes you have to take trade action to incentivize those actions and sometimes you take an action that leads to a better negotiation in the end. We will see where it leads.

[00:10:57]>> You're you you we'll see where it leads.

[00:11:00]But do you think that if we've always had these troubles, this isn't anything to get worried about? I just asked because we had the CFO of GM on earlier today. Obviously, a company like GM, which manufactures a lot of its trucks in Canada and brings them back, has a lot writing on this. There are countless other companies that are kind of watching and waiting and thinking the same thing. Should they rest easy on that front?

[00:11:23]>> I I I think Well, let's just go back to what the president regularly says. If you're building an America, that's where you're going to have certainty. You're going to have access to the robust American consumer. Again, that's a big certainty there. I think if you're if you're planning on building a new factory in Canada and exporting back to the United States, I think you have to understand that the American people, they don't want offshoring. This is a bipartisan view. Uh we don't want a situation where those jobs are going north. Remember Canada, they they did not used to make automobiles. It was in the 60s. Canada essentially limited the import of US vehicles unless our auto companies agreed to produce there in the US Canada auto pack. So they did a very Trumpian thing and saying if you're going to sell here, you need to make here. So, we have a long history again of these tensions. I don't I don't think that there's ever going to be a situation where if a company's offshoring to another country, they're always going to have a 100% guarantee that they'll be able to get it into the United States at 100%.

[00:12:16]>> That's different from when we had NAFTA.

[00:12:18]Starting with NAFTA, we thought it was okay to move uh not just fully completed vehicles, but parts back and forth across the border. For the automakers, the US automakers in particular, they set up a lot of things that was kind of based on that certainty. the the the new world is you shouldn't feel that comfortable if it's not actually being completely manufactured here in the United States.

[00:12:38]>> We we fundamentally disagree on NAFTA.

[00:12:41]The president disagreed with it. I disagreed with it. Uh we had the UAW who didn't love NAFTA. We had people on the right and left who didn't agree with NAFTA. We had people run for president in the '90s against NAFTA. So, so that that's part of the whole problem is that we don't like that certainty of saying you're going to go overseas, build a factory, and reexport it here. Yeah, listen. We're always going to trade.

[00:13:02]>> We're always going to trade. But >> that's what I was asking.

[00:13:04]>> Are there more tariffs coming? The FT report uh that that u provides more detail this week, 301's.

[00:13:13]>> So, with with forced labor, uh the section 301 investigation of forced labor. Again, the US has laws to prohibit trading goods with forced labor. Other countries, most don't have a law. Those that do don't really enforce it. Uh we expect to see some action soon. Uh I don't I don't really I can't really specify a timeline right now. Uh I have a responsibility to to brief Congress and other stakeholders before I I really reveal that kind of thing. But we do expect action soon on that.

[00:13:38]>> Ambassador though the the FT reports that this would be be much broader than than just a just a small number of of countries. Um that this would be a a significant expansion. [music] Is that not right? Well, it covers 60 countries, 6 uh and and about 99% of our trade. And and that actually illustrates the scale of the problem we're facing for years.

[00:14:00]Again, the United States has had on the books this law where we prohibit the import of goods made whole or in part with forced labor and we enforce it rigorously. Other countries, most don't have it. Those that do don't enforce it.

[00:14:12]The EU will say we have a law on forced labor and while that's true, it doesn't come into effect for another year and a half. So like by the term the the terms of their own law it it's not in effect.

[00:14:22]It does cover 60 countries because it's such a prominent problem in the world.

[00:14:26]Great Mr. Ambassador uh thanks for taking all feeling all those questions.

[00:14:30]We appreciate it. Hope to see you again soon.

[00:14:32]>> Have a great day. Thanks all. Okay.