G20 trade ministers meet in Milwaukee as U.S. trade chief says Canada deal 'not urgent'

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MILWAUKEE — G20 trade ministers met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on September 30 and October 1, hosted by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The agenda includes eliminating forced labor in supply chains, reviewing the most-favoured-nation principle and confronting structural excess capacity.

Greer told reporters at a Tuesday roundtable that the United States "is not anti-trade." Asked about the prospect of a deal with Canada, he said: "It's not urgent for us... At some point will there be a deal? I mean, presumably, they have to trade with us a lot. We trade a lot with them too. Eventually, it will happen."

Canada's international trade minister Maninder Sidhu stressed Ottawa's support for "open, predictable and rules-based trade" ahead of the talks, and said he planned to speak with partners in Milwaukee to reinforce the multilateral trading system and diversify an economy seen as too reliant on an increasingly protectionist United States.

The backdrop: after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump's country-specific tariffs in February, Washington reimposed duties on 60 economies over alleged inaction on forced labor and opened excess-capacity probes into 16 trading partners including China, the EU, Japan and India. The U.S. excluded South Africa from this week's meeting and invited Poland instead. G20 leaders meet December 14–15 at Trump's Doral resort in Florida.