Washington Says It Feels No Pressure for a Canada Trade Deal
Washington says it is in no hurry to end its trade war with Canada.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the United States is comfortable with the status quo and is not rushing to strike a deal with Ottawa, in an interview with CNBC broadcast Sept. 25, 2026. The comments are the clearest public signal yet that Washington sees no political or economic pressure to return to sustained bargaining The Globe and Mail.
Greer said the United States is still getting what it needs from Canada in oil, gas and potash, with strong cross-border farm trade. A tariff is a tax charged on imports at the border. Even with the tariff escalation of the past two months, those supplies are still moving. There is no table right now.
He acknowledged only sporadic conversations with Canadian counterparts. He did not describe active negotiations to settle the dispute. "There's no urgency on our side," he said.
On the collapsed August round, Greer was blunt: "we gave them a deal. They left." Prime Minister Mark Carney has described that same U.S. offer as a "bad deal" that "asked too much and offered too little" for Canada.
The breakdown followed days of intensive contact in Washington and Ottawa. Canadian officials said on Aug. 20 that the two sides were "very close" to agreeing a deal that could have reduced months of tariffs and counter-duties, which are retaliatory import taxes Reuters. By the night of Aug. 21, Greer said: "Tonight, Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week" Reuters.
The tariff sequence then moved quickly. The United States began collecting 50-per-cent duties on roughly $28-billion of Canadian goods on Aug. 22, and Canada matched the tariffs dollar for dollar the day after Labour Day. USTR later listed a Sept. 8 release titled "Ambassador Greer Issues Statement on President Trump's Response to Canada's Continued Retaliation Against the United States."
Carney said in late August that the United States must change its attitude toward trade talks before Canada will return to the negotiating table The Globe and Mail. Neither side has since announced a resumption of formal talks.
The August positions had centred on sectoral carve-outs, meaning limited exceptions for specific industries, rather than a comprehensive settlement. Trade negotiators had revived a proposal that would subject Canadian steel and aluminum exports to a quota system, a set limit on how much can be shipped before higher duties apply The Globe and Mail. Canadian officials had separately weighed a proposal to accept reduced U.S. auto tariffs of 10 to 15 per cent as Ottawa pressed Washington for a reprieve The Globe and Mail. Both ideas were discussed as ways to cap exposure without lifting the tariff system itself.
That system extends beyond the bilateral file. Greer said in July that Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and some other countries should face 10 per cent duties The Globe and Mail. The comment predated the August escalation but helps explain Ottawa's assumption that any Canada-specific deal would still leave a tariff floor in place, a minimum duty that stays even after a deal.
The future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the three-country free trade pact known as USMCA, is running on a separate, slower track. Greer said in mid-July that the United States had not started formal negotiations with Canada on the future of the pact, and that Canada still offered no concessions in USMCA talks, while describing Mexico as pragmatic Reuters. He later aimed for interim trade arrangements with Canada and Mexico on USMCA by year-end 2026, with a full renegotiation of the six-year-old agreement expected to bleed into next year beyond 2026 Reuters.
USTR's public calendar in September reflected maintenance of the U.S. position rather than negotiation. The office published a Sept. 9 release titled "Ambassador Greer Joins the FT News Briefing Podcast" and announced Sept. 18 that Greer would travel to New York for an appearance on Sunday, September 20, 2026.
The broader context here is a divergence in leverage as each capital defines it. Washington is saying secure flows of energy, fertilizer inputs and farm goods reduce the cost of delay. Ottawa is saying it will absorb retaliatory costs rather than lock in terms it views as asymmetric, or heavily tilted to one side. Commodities still moving is not the same file as steel, aluminum and autos facing managed protection.
Looking at what this means for the process, the next decision point is procedural, not substantive. Without agreement on conditions for re-engagement, technical work on quotas, tariff rates and USMCA implementation cannot advance. The August language from both sides suggests the gap is not about drafting. It is about whether either government now sees advantage in returning to the table before the USMCA review forces structured contact.
