Canada’s minister responsible for trade, Dominic LeBlanc, is in Washington for a face-to-face meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, marking the third in three weeks as officials race to avert new American duties scheduled to take effect on Aug. 19.
Deadline and stakes
The discussions come ahead of a U.S. timetable to impose 50 per cent tariffs on roughly about five per cent of Canadian exports. The measures are targeted at a narrow list of goods, spanning items from alcoholic beverages to hockey sticks and cement, and follow a broader set of trade grievances raised by Washington earlier.
Canada’s chief trade negotiator, Janice Charette, also spent Monday in Washington meeting with officials from the Office of the United States Trade Representative as Ottawa presses for exemptions and relief from sectoral duties already in place.
What Ottawa is seeking
At the core of Canada’s agenda in these talks are efforts to:
- dissuade the U.S. from imposing the planned Aug. 19 tariffs;
- seek relief from U.S. sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminium, lumber and autos;
- secure an extension of the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) after the Trump administration declined to renew the deal in July.
Officials have held repeated conversations in recent weeks as both governments attempt to narrow differences that Washington flagged when announcing the August tariffs. Among the American concerns are Canadian provincial actions that affected U.S. alcohol sales and alleged discrimination against U.S. motor vehicles and dairy products.
Economic effects already visible
Trade flows between the two countries have already been affected by disruptions in market access. Using figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. wine exports to Canada fell by $360-million US in 2025 compared with the previous year, while spirit exports dropped by about $150-million US. Those declines are linked to provincial restrictions that reduced the availability of U.S. alcohol in many Canadian jurisdictions.
| Item | Reported change (2025 vs. 2024) |
|---|---|
| U.S. wine exports to Canada | $360-million US decline |
| U.S. spirit exports to Canada | $150-million US decline |
Beyond those immediate numbers, Ottawa is concerned that higher duties or broader retaliation could ripple through industries that depend on cross-border supply chains and integrated markets for parts and finished goods.
Logistics and optics
LeBlanc had planned to travel Monday but his flight into Washington was diverted back to Montreal because of severe weather, delaying his arrival. The return to the U.S. capital underscores the urgency Ottawa places on resolving the dispute through direct engagement at the highest levels.
For Canada, the talks are both pragmatic and political. The government must try to preserve export access for affected producers and maintain the integrity of supply chains while managing domestic pressures that prompted some of the provincial measures cited by Washington.
If the Aug. 19 tariffs are implemented as planned, they would represent a sharp escalation in trade frictions between the two countries. The coming days will test whether sustained bilateral engagement can defuse the immediate threat and produce a path toward resolving outstanding sectoral disputes and the broader question of CUSMA’s future.
