“They have a few ideas on how they might want to have a deal with us. We’re obviously open to that,” Greer said in an interview on Fox Business Network.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canada and U.S. agricultural supply chains are heavily integrated and could face disruption, depending on the outcome of the CUSMA review.

Greer said he spoke with his trade counterpart earlier on Wednesday and that they would meet in Washington “in a couple weeks.”

“We’re open to talk, and we’ll see what they have to say,” Greer told FBN’s “Mornings with Maria” program.

Representatives for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S.-Canada tensions have grown in recent months over trade and other issues as Trump has targeted Washington’s northern neighbor.

The Trump administration is reviewing the Canada-United States-Mexico trade pact enacted during Trump’s first term in the White House term and faces a July 1 deadline to notify Congress whether it plans to change the agreement.

‘Reshoring’ not moving fast enough: Greer

Greer said U.S. officials are focused on moving production of cars and other goods back to the U.S. But the reshoring of critical supply chains is not happening fast enough under the current pact, he said in a separate interview with CBC News, expressing concern that China will funnel goods through Canada to avoid certain tariffs as Beijing and Ottawa seek to develop closer ties.

“We don’t want a situation where Canada’s being used as a back door for Chinese goods,” he told CBC reporter Katie Simpson late on Tuesday in a video posted on X.

“If Canada wants to agree that we can have some level of higher tariff on them while they open their markets to us on things like dairy and other things, then that’s a helpful conversation,” Greer added.

Trump has said Washington could leave CUSMA and strike separate deals with Canada and Mexico as his administration pursues separate talks with each bordering country.

Greer told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday that he would continue separate negotiations with representatives of Canada and Mexico over the coming year “because our relationships with those countries are so different.”

One solution could be to “tack on” separate protocols for each nation onto CUSMA “to fix some of the gaps,” he said.

— Additional reporting by Promit Mukherjee

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Washington | Reuters—U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly cut off trade talks with Canada on Friday over its tax targeting U.S. technology firms, saying that it was a “blatant attack” and that he would set a new tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week.

The move plunges U.S.-Canada relations back into chaos after a period of relative calm that included a cordial G7 meeting in mid-June where Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed to wrap up a new economic agreement within 30 days.

It also came just hours after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent struck an upbeat tone on trade, touting progress had been made with China on reviving the flow of critical minerals for the U.S. manufacturing sector and in other key tariff negotiations.

The often-chaotic rollout of Trump’s import levies since his return to office this year has frequently whipsawed financial markets, and have begun to weigh on consumer spending, the bedrock of the U.S. economy.

U.S. stocks were briefly batted lower by his broadside against Canada, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq managed to close out the week at record highs.

Trump’s action comes ahead of Canada’s plans to begin collecting on Monday a previously enacted digital services tax on U.S. technology firms, including Amazon, Meta, Alphabet’s Google and Apple, among others.

The tax is three per cent of the digital services revenue a firm takes in from Canadian users above $20 million in a calendar year, and payments will be retroactive to 2022.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social media platform, called the tax “a direct and blatant attack on our country” and said Canada was a “very difficult country to TRADE with.”

“Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,” Trump said. “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven-day period.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that the negotiations with Canada would not resume “until they straighten out their act,” adding that the U.S. holds “such power over Canada.”

Canada is the second-largest U.S. trading partner after Mexico, and the largest buyer of U.S exports. It bought $349.4 billion (C$478.0 billion) of U.S. goods last year and exported $412.7 billion (C$564.6 billion) to the U.S., according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Carney’s office responded to Trump’s announcement by saying: “The Canadian government will continue to engage in these complex negotiations with the United States in the best interests of Canadian workers and businesses.”

Bessent sought to downplay the U.S.-Canadian dispute in a CNBC interview, saying U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would likely open a Section 301 probe into Canada’s digital tax that would clear the way for tariff retaliation in the amount of harm to U.S. firms, which he said was roughly $2 billion.

The U.S. has prepared similar retaliation against European countries that have imposed digital taxes. A USTR spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

‘Wrapped up by Labour Day’

Earlier on Friday, Bessent said the Trump administration’s various trade deals with other countries could be done by the Sept. 1 Labour Day holiday, citing talks with 18 top trade partners and another revision to a deal with China to reopen the flow of rare earth minerals and magnets.

After a week where tariffs took a back seat to the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the massive tax and spending bill in the U.S. Congress, the Trump administration’s trade negotiations have picked up.

The United States sent a new proposal to the European Union on Thursday and India sent a delegation to Washington for more talks.

“So we have countries approaching us with very good deals,” Bessent said on Fox Business Network.

“We have 18 important trading partners. … If we can ink 10 or 12 of the important 18, there are another important 20 relationships, then I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labour Day,” Bessent said.

He did not mention any changes to a July 9 deadline for countries to reach deals with the United States or see tariffs spike higher, but Trump said at the White House that he could extend the tariff deadline or “make it shorter.”

Trump said that he would notify countries of their tariff rates within the next week and a half, adding: “I’d like to just send letters out to everybody: Congratulations. You’re paying 25 per cent.”

New U.S.-China export revisions

Bessent said the United States and China had resolved issues surrounding shipments of Chinese rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S., further modifying a deal reached in May in Geneva.

As part of its retaliation against new U.S. tariffs, China suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, upending supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

During U.S.-China talks in May in Geneva, Beijing committed to removing the measures imposed since April 2, but those critical materials were not moving as fast as agreed, Bessent said, so the U.S. put countermeasures in place.

“I am confident now that … as agreed, the magnets will flow,” Bessent said, adding that these materials would go to U.S. firms that had received them previously on a regular basis. He later said that the U.S. would begin shipping withheld materials to China when the rare earths shipments resumed.

China’s Commerce Ministry said on Friday the two countries have confirmed details on the framework of implementing the Geneva trade talks consensus. It said China will approve export applications of controlled items in accordance with the law. It did not mention rare earths.

Trump administration officials also held trade talks on Friday with India and Japan, two other countries in advanced negotiations with the U.S.

The Japanese government said in a statement that the two sides will continue to work to “reach an agreement that benefits both Japan and the United States.”

–Reporting by David Lawder, Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Promit Mukherjee and David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Nathan Layne in New York and Manoj Kumar in New Delhi.

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Trump, in an interview aired by Fox Business Network a day after the 30-day delay, said: “I thought it would be a fair thing to do, and so I gave them a little bit of a break for this short period of time.”

Why it matters: Canadian agriculture depends heavily on exports to the U.S.

But he said that on April 2, reciprocal tariffs would be implemented to equalize any duty rates between the three countries. Under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade that he negotiated and signed, there are almost no tariffs on products crossing North American borders.

Among the few exceptions are Canada’s high tariffs on dairy products to protect domestic farmers.

“I wanted to help the American carmakers until April 2nd,” Trump said. “April 2nd, it becomes all reciprocal. What they charge us, we charge them. It’s a big deal.”

Trump’s top White House economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said that the partly suspended 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods are still in place to push the countries to halt flows of fentanyl into the U.S.

He told CNN that if Trump thinks progress on fentanyl “hasn’t been that impressive,” the 25 per cent tariffs will remain in place after April 2, in addition to any increases from Trump’s reciprocal tariff plans. The reprieve for USMCA-compliant autos and other products will also end at that time.

Adjusting tariffs

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC that under the reciprocal tariff plan, the U.S. will match both tariff rates of other countries and non-tariff barriers.

Navarro said U.S. tariff adjustments would reflect “in the aggregate, the unfairness embedded in the higher tariffs and non-tariff barriers that countries impose on us,” Navarro said.

He added that those tariff adjustments would be made through industry-specific and country-specific investigations.

Asked in the Fox Business interview whether businesses could get clarity about his tariff plan, Trump said: “Well, I think so. But, you know, the terms could go up as time goes by, and they may go up and, you know, I don’t know if it’s predictability.”

There are multiple other Trump tariff actions in play.

Next Wednesday, Trump’s administration will effectively raise tariffs on steel and aluminum by rescinding longstanding exemptions for duties of 25 per cent on steel and raising the rate to 25 per cent for aluminum. This will heap more duties on imports from Canada and Mexico, the biggest foreign suppliers of the metals.

The move also subjects hundreds of downstream products to those tariffs, from steel wire and fabricated structures to bulldozer blades.

Canada’s industry minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, told CNBC that Ottawa was having difficulty understanding what needed to be done to avoid U.S. tariffs.

“It seems that the goal posts keep moving, and that’s what makes it difficult,” Champagne said. “So I just think that we need to get back to a place of normalcy in our relationship between Canada and the United States.”

He said Canada was willing to engage with Trump on renegotiating the CUSMA trade agreement, as called for in 2026, but that there was a process for this that needed to be followed.

“What we need is stability and predictability on both sides of the border,” Champagne said.

—Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal

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The virus has wiped out more than 156 million chickens, turkeys and other birds nationwide since an outbreak in poultry began in 2022. Losses of laying hens have slashed egg supplies, sending prices soaring and prompting restaurants to raise prices.

Bird flu has also infected about two-thirds of the dairy herds in California, the biggest milk-producing state, and nearly 70 people since April.

In New York state, the five-day closure of live poultry markets in New York City and three counties —Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau — will allow them to be cleaned and disinfected to help prevent spread of the disease, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement.

Authorities found avian flu at poultry markets in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn since January 31, according to the statement.

“I have directed our state agencies to use all available resources to ensure we are taking every measure necessary to keep the risk to the public low,” Hochul said.

Wild birds often carry the virus during migration periods and can transmit it to poultry through direct contact or through contaminated feces or feathers. To contain the virus, poultry are culled when even one bird in a flock tests positive.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture for the first time this week confirmed a second strain of bird flu in U.S. dairy cattle, a discovery that ramped up concerns about its spread.

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FDA commissioner Robert Califf provided no details, but President Joe Biden said last week he was working to allow more formula to come in from other countries.

Empty or low-stock shelves stem partly from a February recall of powdered formula and a plant closure by one of the nation’s main manufacturers, Abbott Laboratories, after four babies who had been fed formula made there became ill from Cronobacter sakazakii infections.

Abbott took a step to reopen the plant on Monday, saying it had agreed with the FDA on the steps needed to resume production there. The company said it would restart the plant within two weeks after the FDA confirms it has met the requirements.

The shortage of Abbott’s skim milk-based formula has been compounded by supply-chain snags and historic inflation, leaving about 40 per cent of baby formula products out of stock nationwide, data shows.

Califf told NBC News he does not expect the shortage of the critical baby product to last until the end of year, adding on CNN that he expects the situation to gradually improve.

The White House separately said it was continuing talks with the major formula manufacturers to identify logistical hurdles and provide any transportation support that could help them and major retailers get formula to where it is needed.

“This is principally an issue of production more than goods movement,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters at a White House briefing.

Abbott said in a statement on Monday that after investigations by the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Abbott, there is no conclusive evidence to link Abbott’s formulas to these infant illnesses.

“We have been working to address the FDA’s observations so we can restart operations,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

Abbott has shipped to the U.S. millions of cans of formula from its FDA-approved Ireland facility.

As far as efforts to bring in baby formula from other countries that the FDA deems safe for import, Califf said: “I expect by the end of the day today that we’re likely to have an announcement about that path forward.”

Representatives for the health agency did not respond to a request seeking more details on the plan.

White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese told reporters he expected the FDA to issue import guidance as soon as Monday.

A White House official earlier said the government has offered transportation and logistics support to Abbott as well as Reckitt Benckiser, Nestle and Perrigo, in addition to top retailers such as Target, Amazon and Walmart.

Congress this week also plans to address infant formula rules regarding the Women, Infants and Children program, a federal assistance nutrition program administered by U.S. states, as well as emergency funding to shore up supplies.

— Reporting for Reuters by Susan Heavey, Jeff Mason and Trevor Hunnicutt; additional reporting by David Shepardson, Caroline Humer and Leroy Leo.

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The U.S. is working with manufacturers to allow more importation of baby formula, Biden told reporters in the Rose Garden. “We’re going to be, in a matter of weeks or less, getting significantly more formula on shelves,” he said.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said earlier Friday the FDA will announce plans next week detailing how manufacturers and suppliers abroad will be able to import their products into the United States, as well as new options for U.S. companies.

The FDA is aiming for a streamlined process that will get more products on U.S. shelves while meeting safety, quality and labeling standards, Carliff said. The US$4 billion annual U.S. baby formula market is dominated by domestic producers, with imports limited and subject to high tariffs .

“Our data indicates that in stock rates in retail stores are stabilizing but we continue to work around the clock to further increase availability,” Carliff said on Twitter.

The Biden administration this week has come under increasing pressure to address the problem, which has roots in a February recall of some formulas by one of the nation’s main manufacturers, Abbott Laboratories.

U.S. agencies have been investigating bacterial infections caused by the infant formula manufactured at Abbott’s Sturgis facility in Michigan.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now closed its investigation on Abbott’s formula, with no additional cases of infections, according to a notice posted Friday on the FDA website.

According to Health Canada, which oversaw a parallel recall of Abbott formula in the Canadian market, the recalls were based on the potential risk of contamination with salmonella and Cronobacter sakazakii. The latter is “not commonly linked to human illness (but) in rare cases it can cause serious or fatal infections.”

Many U.S. parents rely on baby formula. Fewer than half of babies born in the United States were exclusively breast-fed through their first three months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2020 Breastfeeding Report Card.

Abbott’s recall affected formulas, including certain Similac products, made at a Michigan plant after complaints about bacterial infections in infants who had consumed the products.

The shortages have been compounded by supply-chain snags and historic inflation, leaving about 40 per cent of baby formula products out of stock nationwide, data firm Datasembly said.

Biden met on Thursday with executives from infant formula manufacturers and retailers, pressing them to do everything possible to get families access.

Retailers said their top ask is more flexibility on the types of formula they can sell, while consumers need more flexibility on the types they can buy, particularly through the ‘WIC’ program for low-income families, the White House said.

The nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children is a federal assistance scheme administered by U.S. states. Biden told reporters retailers such as Walmart were also looking for flexibility about the amounts of formula WIC users could buy.

Abbott said on Friday it has shipped millions of cans of infant formula powder into the United States from its Ireland facility, particularly to serve consumers who use the WIC program for low-income families.

In states where Abbott has the WIC contract, the company said it will pay rebates on competing products if Similac is not available through August.

About half of infant formula nationwide is purchased by participants using WIC benefits, the White House said, and rules set by individual states have a big effect on the availability and distribution of infant formula.

“The shortage has taken an especially dangerous toll on women and children from underserved communities,” U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

The House of Representatives next week will bring up a bill to grant emergency authority to the WIC program to address supply-chain disruptions and recalls by relaxing non-safety-related regulations, she said in a statement on Friday.

Pelosi also said an emergency spending bill to address the infant formula shortage would advance in the House.

In other measures on Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee said it plans to investigate the four largest manufacturers of baby formula and seek answers on how to ramp up production and avoid any future shortage.

The committee said on Friday it sent letters seeking information to Abbott Nutrition, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Nestle and Perrigo.

The shortage poses a threat to families throughout the country, the letter said, “particularly those with less income who have historically experienced health in equities.”

Two other House committees — Energy and Commerce, and Appropriations — planned hearings on the issue.

— Reporting for Reuters by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan in Washington and Ankur Banerjee and Leroy Leo in Bangalore. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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China has targeted U.S. agricultural exports with tariffs in retaliation to those imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, because the majority of voters in the farm states voted for him in the 2016 election. Republican candidates in the upcoming congressional elections in November, however, have expressed deep concern about their states’ farm economies.

Trump has been talking for months about finding ways to aid farmers as China, in particular, has canceled orders for soybeans and other crops.

Sonny Perdue, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the relief package will be financed through USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation and thus will not require congressional approval.

The aid is intended to serve as temporary boost to farmers as the United States and China negotiate over trade issues.

“This obviously is a short-term solution that will give President Trump time to work on a long-term trade policy,” Perdue said.

The Commodity Credit Corporation has broad authority to make loans and direct payments to U.S. growers when prices for corn, soybeans, wheat and other agricultural goods are low.

In a speech to in Kansas City, Mo. on Tuesday, the president aggressively defended his trade policies.

“We have to do it,” Trump said, blasting both China and the European Union.

“But it’s all working out,” he said. Farmers would ultimately benefit from his approach, he pledged.

Later this week, Trump will visit Iowa and Illinois, two other farm-belt states, as he seeks to shore up support for Republican candidates in those regions.

Federal subsidies for farmers, however, are likely to place congressional Republicans, who typically resist large-scale government assistance programs, in a difficult position of supporting the president, a fellow Republican, or distancing themselves.

Some were quick to denounce the proposal.

“This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and the White House’s ‘plan’ is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches,” said Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who frequently criticizes the president, a fellow Republican (all figures US$).

“Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers,” Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul wrote on Twitter. “If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers — the answer is remove the tariffs.”

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said the aid package is “encouraging for the short term.”

“What farmers in Iowa and throughout rural America need in the long term are markets and opportunity, not government handouts,” Grassley said.

Democratic U.S. Representative Jackie Speier of California, a major agricultural state, challenged the president on Twitter. “OK @POTUS – you created this mess with your trade war and now you are going to spend $12 billion to placate the farmers that voted for you,” she tweeted.

Short-term boost?

The news, however, lifted shares of farm equipment companies on the prospect that farmers will have more money to spend on tractors and other farm gear.

Deere and Co. jumped 2.7 per cent, while Caterpillar gained more than one per cent and Agco rose 0.5 per cent.

Soybean futures, hit hard by China’s retaliatory tariffs, rose 1.2 per cent and hit their highest in two weeks as traders bet farm aid would improve demand, reducing a current surplus supply.

Farmers have been a particular target in the current clash over trade policy as other countries seek to retaliate for Trump’s duties on Chinese goods as well as on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. Those affected economies have in turn targeted U.S. agricultural products, including soybeans, dairy, meat, produce and liquor.

Some manufacturers will view the subsidies to farmers as “frustrating,” according to a representative of a manufacturing coalition working on trade issues, speaking on condition of anonymity pending the official announcement.

Manufacturers – particularly any who use steel or aluminum – have also been hit hard by the effects of Trump’s decision to levy tariffs on the two metals.

Farmers for Free Trade, an agricultural-industry advocacy group, also criticized the administration’s proposal.

“The best relief for the president’s trade war would be ending the trade war. Farmers need contracts, not compensation, so they can create stability and plan for the future,” said the group’s executive director, Brian Kuehl.

“This proposed action would only be a short-term attempt at masking the long-term damage caused by tariffs.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Ginger Gibson, Susan Heavey, Roberta Rampton and David Shepardson in Washington; Michael Hirtzer, Thomas Polansek, Caroline Stauffer, Mark Weinraub in Chicago; and Steve Holland in Kansas City. Writing by Susan Heavey and James Oliphant.

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