Bessent blames Carney for collapse of US-Canada trade talks at G-20

Canada plans 50% tariffs on roughly 700 US products next week

Bessent’s comments came on the first day of the G-20 finance ministers’ conference, hosted this year by the United States at a resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. The annual gathering of economic officials from major industrialized and developing economies is meant to promote cooperation on global economic policy, but the breakdown of U.S.–Canada talks this month could make the meeting’s traditional consensus statement harder to achieve, according to people familiar with the early rounds of negotiations.

In his CNBC interview, Bessent said: “I don’t think you can be in a tit-for-tat [trade war] with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are.” He added: “I think this is very unfortunate that Prime Minister Carney has turned this into a political shouting match.”

The U.S. placed tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods earlier this month after dealmaking efforts collapsed. Canada has said it will hit back with 50% tariffs on roughly 700 American products — ranging from appliances to cheese — effective next Tuesday. The next round of U.S. retaliation, a 50% tariff on Canadian-made vehicles and auto parts, is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 if the two sides do not reach an agreement.

Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement Monday that one of Canada’s goals at the summit is to build more diverse global trading relationships — a priority for the Carney government because, Canadian officials say, “the days of the U.S. as a reliable economic partner are over.” Speaking to reporters in North Carolina, Champagne pointed to a 3.3% annualized jump in Canadian output in the April-to-June period — the strongest quarterly growth in more than three years, partly fueled by increased exports to the United States. “We are just here to advocate for a level playing field,” he said, adding that he has a good relationship with Bessent.

A spokesman for Champagne later confirmed a bilateral meeting with Bessent is scheduled. The spokesman’s statement, sent via email, did not directly address Bessent’s criticism of Canada. Representatives for Prime Minister Carney did not respond to a request for comment.

Canada’s chief negotiator on U.S. trade, Janice Charette, offered her own account over the weekend in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., saying the events leading to the collapse of negotiations contradicted what U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had disclosed in recent days. “Our pens are down, but the door is open,” Charette said. “We’re prepared to go and work with the United States on a deal that would be in the economic interest of Canadians, as long as it doesn’t impact on Canadian sovereignty.”

Charette identified two issues that she said drove the collapse: 11th-hour U.S. demands to exclude medium- and heavy-duty trucks from tariff relief, and a U.S. insistence on having input into Canada’s trade agreements with other countries. “We were not willing to accept a situation where the United States would dictate who we could do free trade agreements with,” she said.

Bessent described America’s turn to host the G-20 as an opportunity to push for stronger global growth through deregulation. He said he wanted to get “back to the basics.” The location in Asheville was also chosen to showcase the region’s recovery from a devastating hurricane two years ago. Bessent skipped last year’s meeting in South Africa amid strained international relationships over U.S. trade policy.

The dispute is one of several playing out at the conference. The Iran conflict is driving tensions between G-20 members after Bessent last week warned of sanctions on countries that assist Iran — a warning with particular resonance for China, Iran’s largest trading partner and a G-20 member. The war in Ukraine also pits another G-20 member, Russia, against Ukraine’s Western allies; Bessent met with Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov in Asheville on Monday.

Past G-20 finance ministers’ meetings have reached consensus on issues such as cooperative trade and free currency markets — another topic that could become a sticking point after the U.S. sold euros to prop up the Japanese yen at Bessent’s direction this summer.