International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu at the G20 Trade Ministerial Conference in Milwaukee on Thursday, where he spoke with his American counterpart Jamieson Greer.KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Canada’s Minister of International Trade has met with his U.S. counterpart for the first time since trade talks between the two countries fell apart in August.
Maninder Sidhu spoke with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer Wednesday evening on the sidelines of a G20 trade ministers meeting in Milwaukee, just days after the most recent escalation of the trade war: a U.S. ban on imports of numerous Canadian goods, from molasses to liquor and three-wheeled motorcycles.
But neither side gave any indication of progress toward an agreement that would bring an end to the punishing tariffs and countertariffs on a wide array of imports.
Technical talks continue between Canada and the United States, Mr. Greer told reporters Thursday. But “the reality is there are a handful of outstanding issues that are quite difficult to resolve.”
Mr. Sidhu, meanwhile, offered no suggestion that Canada is preparing to offer new concessions.
“You want a good deal for your workers in the industries, and Canada won’t accept anything less than that,” he said. “When you negotiate with Canada, it has to be mutually beneficial.”
In an unusual step for a Canadian cabinet minister on U.S. soil, Mr. Sidhu spoke with laid-off auto workers in Milwaukee, a conversation he described as reinforcing the argument that tariffs are hurting both countries.
“I strongly believe the auto sector is stronger when we’re able to work together,” he said. “So that was my message: that you’re facing some of the same challenges that we’re facing. Let’s help each other and let’s work through something.”
Mr. Sidhu’s office said the discussion happened in a coffee shop, after local workers recognized the minister’s Canada pin and approached him.
That outreach, however, had no discernible effect on the stalled talks with the U.S.
Mr. Greer said the two men spoke mostly about G20-related issues.
Although U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to broaden North American free trade through the USMCA agreement during his first administration, the current administration is “not inclined to go to zero tariffs,” Mr. Greer told Bloomberg Thursday.
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He also qualified comments from Mr. Trump, who suggested earlier this week that a trade deal with Canada may be expected within weeks.
“I’d emphasize the ‘may’ in that part of the situation,” Mr. Greer said.
In the U.S., higher prices caused by tariffs have taken on political importance in several tightly contested races ahead of midterm elections in early November. In Michigan, for example, Governor Gretchen Whitmer said tariffs have cost households in her state about US$5,600 since January, 2025.
”Tariffs are brutalizing Michigan, and other states should heed the warning,” she wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month.
But Mr. Greer said last week that Mr. Trump “is comfortable where we are on Canada.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc have continued to speak with Mr. Trump, Mr. Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick but have given no indication that trade talks could restart any time soon.
Instead, Mr. Trump took fresh aim at Canada this week, saying that one of his country’s closest allies and trading partners is “one of the worst countries in the entire world.”
“They want to have a deal with us,” he said Monday. “They call us all the time. The problem is, they have treated the United States very unfairly.”
In Milwaukee, a city chosen as a host because of its Great Lakes industrial history, Mr. Greer advocated acting outside of the the World Trade Organization and the foundation it has set for global commerce.
“President Trump has essentially remade the global trading order,” Mr. Greer said Thursday.
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In prepared remarks at the opening of the meetings this week, he decried ”slavish fidelity to multilateral rules.” The U.S. has sought to weaken the WTO’s most-favoured nation principle, which mandates equal and non-discriminatory treatment among trading partners.
Mr. Greer also sought G20 consensus on condemning the weaponization of food, addressing structural excess capacity and production and fighting forced labour.
In the end, G20 members agreed only to a statement on food. The U.S. did not even propose a joint statement on the most-favoured nation principle, an acknowledgment that Washington is out of step with many other global capitals.
Canada attended the meetings in hopes of defending that global trading order.
“We champion open, predictable and rules-based trade that supports economic growth and strengthens global supply chain resilience,” Mr. Sidhu said in a statement.
Even so, he arrived in Milwaukee determined to pursue new deals to access markets such as India and the European Union.
A fifth round of negotiations with India will take place Monday in Ottawa, Mr. Sidhu said, although he did not commit to completing that deal by the end of the year.
With the EU, however, there is ”much alignment,” he said, amid preparations for an expanded transatlantic partnership.
Mr. Sidhu met individually with most G20 members, including representatives from Australia, Brazil, the EU, France, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Germany, China, South Korea, and Turkey.
For Canada, he said in a statement, trade diversification is “Plan A and has been since our government took office,” pointing to the 17-per-cent increase over the past year in trade with countries other than the U.S.
“Nearly one-third of Canadian exports now go to destinations outside the United States, the highest share in 40 years,” he said.
Such efforts have annoyed Mr. Trump, but on Thursday Mr. Greer suggested the U.S. has little to fear from greater co-operation between Canada and Europe.
“These are very low-growth jurisdictions, and low growth plus low growth is still low growth,” he said. “So we are actually totally fine with countries trying to find other people to take their surplus production.”