U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday accused Canada of pursuing policies that make it difficult to begin a mandatory review this year of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, especially compared with Mexico’s “quite pragmatic” approach.
However, he also indicated that concerns President Donald Trump raised Monday about a new bridge between Michigan and Ontario would proceed on a separate track.
“With the Canadians, it’s more challenging,” Greer said in an interview with Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo. “They continue to have certain barriers. They refuse to sell U.S. wine and spirits on their shelves. There are a variety of issues that they have not addressed and they aren’t addressing, and this makes it a big challenge and an obstacle for starting real negotiations with them.”
Context: Long-standing market access barriers imposed by Canadian provincial liquor control boards greatly hamper exports of U.S. wine, beer and spirits to Canada, according to an annual report produced by Greer’s office. In addition, the province of Ontario notably ordered its state-run liquor stores to pull American alcoholic products from its shelves until Trump drops the tariffs he has imposed on Canada.
