Jamieson Greer

Right

... being negotiated by Prime Minister Carney, Trade Minister LeBlanc, uh, Trade Negotiator Janet Charette, and their counterparts on the American side, particularly US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

If we are to believe a lot of the reporting, um, in effect, what, what was being negotiated would have protected tariff-free access to US market for the vast majority of Canadian exports, including, um, large swaths of our agricultural economy, uh, in, in exchange for maintaining, um, tariffs on aluminum and steel, uh, and autos, and some number of other concessions from Canada, probably with respect to, uh, the treatment of big tech firms when it comes to the CanCon rules, probably some liberalization or adjustments to the supply management regime and, and maybe some other things.

I must admit that that deal, as it's been reported, is far better, um, than my operating assumption going in.

Great question.

In, in a way, what you're alluding to is, um, maybe the following.

Y- Towards the end of August, I think Wednesday, August 21st or 22nd, um, uh, Jamieson Greer announced that a, a deal in principle had been achieved.

He congratulates on, uh, the president on X.

Right

... being negotiated by Prime Minister Carney, Trade Minister LeBlanc, uh, Trade Negotiator Janet Charette, and their counterparts on the American side, particularly US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

If we are to believe a lot of the reporting, um, in effect, what, what was being negotiated would have protected tariff-free access to US market for the vast majority of Canadian exports, including, um, large swaths of our agricultural economy, uh, in, in exchange for maintaining, um, tariffs on aluminum and steel, uh, and autos, and some number of other concessions from Canada, probably with respect to, uh, the treatment of big tech firms when it comes to the CanCon rules, probably some liberalization or adjustments to the supply management regime and, and maybe some other things.

I must admit that that deal, as it's been reported, is far better, um, than my operating assumption going in.

Great question.

In, in a way, what you're alluding to is, um, maybe the following.

Y- Towards the end of August, I think Wednesday, August 21st or 22nd, um, uh, Jamieson Greer announced that a, a deal in principle had been achieved.

He congratulates on, uh, the president on X.

That ghost being Lutnick.

And the implication there is that what Jamieson Greer and his team were negotiating-

Jamieson Greer being the US trade representative

... did not have the full political and power buy-in in the White House from the President or his commerce secretary, and that there were conditions being placed, new ones being placed at the last minute on things like language and culture, which were not acceptable to the Canadians.

I am impressed by the fact that there have not been authoritative analyses of this all.

Like, this would be the dumbest move that Canada ever made, and I think what they did here, I, I think this is the EU being cute and, and thinking that they were gonna rattle Donald Trump's cage.

But Jamieson Greer is a smart, smart trade lawyer, and I think he probably said, "Mr.

President, tell them good luck.

We'll talk to you after that deal." Because this puts Canada in a box more than anything.

All of these things together, um, leave us a lot less regulatory space, and every time we give up something in the digital realm for these trade negotiations, it makes it that much harder for us to p- pass these laws and address real harms that people are experiencing online.

So you referred to a phrase there, digital trade alignment, and it's one that, uh, the USTR, Jamieson Greer, has used in the past as well.

He's tweeted about it.

So I, I, I wanted to ask you, like, what does digital trade alignment even mean? And given what you've said so far, is that the sort of thing we should even be pursuing? 'Cause it doesn't sound great, James.

Okay.

With all that in mind then, I know y- you're not in those rooms anymore, but looking at how it's all playing out in public, um, the way the various different players speak to media, Jamieson Greer seems to have a different style than Howard Lutnick.

They say different things from Carney.

How do you sort all of that out?

Well, you have to take a step back and ask who their audience is, right? I mean, I think Howard Lutnick's audience is the president and his base, whereas Jamieson Greer initially was trying to convince Canadians that the reasons the talks fell apart was because Canada changed the rules, not the United States.

So if you listen to his interview that he had, he came across as very rational and very reasonable, which is what's going to sell well with a Canadian audience, whereas Howard Lutnick's bluster is gonna sell better with the MAGA base.

Yeah, 'cause there are people who feel that Greer is...

If you had to speculate what's going on, where do you think the truth is?

Uh, LeBlanc spoke to reporters Friday morning in Banff.

Uh, he said he remains in contact with both USTR, Jamieson Greer, uh, so that's his trade counterpart, but also Howard Lutnick and, uh ...

Yeah, so he's, he ...

There, there's still ongoing conversations, but there's no indication that there's any plans for any sort of y- return of formal negotiations on, uh, the trade agreement that collapsed last month.

That was really sort of the, uh, the beginning of things.

That's when Carney sort of reached out to pr- the President, and there seemed to be an indication that there was a willingness on both sides to start, uh, negotiating some form of interim agreement.

Now, Jamieson Greer has been clear that, uh, apart from, you know, reviewing the, the CUSMA, that is the North American trade pact between Mexico, Canada, and the US, uh, he is also looking to make interim deals on the side, bilateral deals with both Mexico and Canada by the end of this year.

Uh, there was some indication that the US seemed to think that Canada was dragging its feet.

US President Donald Trump recently signed five proclamations banning Canadian whey, molasses, alcohol, and motorcycle imports.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the action is a natural consequence of Canada's continued discriminatory treatment of crucial American exports, ranging from alcoholic beverages to dairy products to motor vehicles.

Greer said the president will continue to leverage the tools at his disposal to restore trade reciprocity and to defend the interests of American workers and exports.

The ban goes into effect September twenty-ninth.