US trade representative Jamieson Greer has said that while he expects Canadian and American delegations to meet soon to continue trade talks, he warns that any deal Canada makes with its southern neighbour will include tariffs.This comes as the CUSMA trade agreement is set to be renegotiated in June, and it seems like any notion of free trade between the once-close countries is now a pipe dream.Comments like these from the US trade representative also highlight the ongoing trade war, which has been in place since the start of Donald Trump's second term in January 2025. "If Canada wants to agree that we can have some level of higher tariff on them while they open their markets to us...that’s a helpful conversation,” Greer said, mentioning the Canadian dairy market as a sector that the American administration is targeting..Comments like these from top US trade officials seem to signal that the era of free trade between Canada and the United States is over.Speaking about CUSMA, Greer said that while "there is some good" in the trade agreement, "if we wanna (sic) have that deal, we have to have better rules, stricter rules, to make sure there's more US content in what we have."He also mentioned that Canada's closer ties to China could mean that Canada could become a "backdoor for Chinese goods" if free trade between the two countries remained.In a later interview, Greer reiterated this point and also mentioned the removal of American liquor from shelves in Ontario as another source of irritation for the US administration..Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded to these comments, saying that if the US continues to impose tariffs on Canada, Canada will continue to retaliate."It's tit for tat, (if) you're going to increase tariffs on us... I say we tariff them back," Ford said in a press conference Wednesday.Ford also invoked former US president Ronald Reagan, saying that due to Trump's protectionist economic actions, Reagan would be "spinning in his grave."
