US trade representative won’t commit to new Russian sanctions - Semafor

MILWAUKEE — US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday wouldn’t commit to imposing recently enacted Russian sanctions, telling Semafor and two other outlets that officials plan to “name names” this month but it’s ultimately President Donald Trump’s decision whether to enact the levies.

Trump signed the sanctions package into law last month. A longtime priority of one of his most loyal allies, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, the legislation gives the administration until Oct. 18 to decide whether to sanction countries up to 100% over their use of Russian oil and gas.

Asked whether the administration planned to meet that deadline, Greer left the door open on where it could land.

“Well, we do have to do a report within 30 days — we have to name names — so we’ll be doing that,” Greer said in an interview with Semafor and two other outlets on the sidelines of the G20 trade ministerial. “What kind of action we’ll take is for the president to decide.”

Officials from the European Union and India brought the sanctions up to him this week, Greer said. He added that the European Union has “largely shifted to American oil and gas,” while India’s purchase of Russian oil and gas was “really kind of a wartime-discount situation.”

The sanctions legislation enjoyed broad bipartisan support, with US lawmakers and Ukrainian officials viewing it as a crucial mechanism to put more pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine before the winter. But Trump, who has at times spoken warmly of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is also hoping to cajole Moscow into striking a deal, including by potentially easing sanctions in exchange for releasing political prisoners.

Greer separately brushed off a pending EU-Canada agreement, remarking that “there’s not actually juice left to squeeze in that” given “they have had a trade agreement for 10 years already.”

“Growth rate in Canada is pretty low; growth rate in EU pretty low. Last time I checked, zero plus zero still equals zero,” Greer said. “So there’s just not a lot of there, there.”

The US “is where the growth is; this is where the consumption is. This is where people want to be selling,” Greer continued. “That’s why almost every other country in the world wants to cut a deal with the US; they want to cut a deal with the president to make sure they can keep playing in this market.”

He said later that “it’s hard to say at this point” whether the US might impose tariffs on additional Canadian goods: “For us, again, we’re trying to get our deficit down.”

Greer also said the US is encouraging other G20 members to take “coordinated action” against China, also a member, in hopes of altering its behavior.

“For many years, part of the problem with multilateral or plurilateral organizations is they would paper over problems rather than fix them: You’d come to these, and in the interest of what they would call diplomacy, everyone would talk around the issues,” Greer said. “People wouldn’t name names, and they’d say, ‘Well, this is an issue, but let’s keep talking about it.’”

“That’s not effective for us in the Trump administration,” Greer continued. “We’re taking action, and then we’re using these sessions to explain our actions and to invite others to take coordinated action.”

Asked whether bilateral tensions risk complicating those multilateral efforts, Greer said bilateral deals allowed the US to “actually make progress and get things done,” adding that “the G20 can weather disagreement.”

He pointed to plans to release “a joint statement against the weaponization of food” as well as a statement addressing “excess capacity and production” before the trade ministers leave town. The latter would not be “a consensus document” since “you might have a few holdouts that don’t want to sign,” he added.

The US also plans to request public comment on any recommendations from the US-China Board of Trade before it adjusts any tariffs on non-sensitive goods, Greer said. And he described the US-China Board of Investment, still mostly under wraps, as “a forum where the two sides can talk” that won’t “replace any other investment tools and mechanisms we have in America at all.”

Greer chose to host the trade ministerial in Milwaukee, a Midwestern manufacturing hub couched in agricultural heartland, so his counterparts can “see what we’re trying to protect,” as he put it to reporters Tuesday. He shuttled officials to places like the Harley Davidson Museum and Rockwell Automation, where they donned steel-toed sneakers for a factory-floor tour.

Greer laid out four priorities: forced labor, steel overproduction, food weaponization, and most-favored-nation status. The first major announcement of the week came Wednesday, when the OECD’s Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity agreed on the sidelines to crack down on countries that contribute to steel overproduction — a clear shot at Beijing.

As for Canada, International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu spent his time huddling with other counterparts, since a different official is spearheading negotiations with Greer amid the countries’ escalating trade war. Sidhu told reporters Thursday that Canadian and EU officials discussed how a fresh deal might “upgrade” the previous trade agreement Greer referenced given “digital trade has evolved quite a bit.”

The countries will make a formal announcement later this month, Sidhu added. Greer isn’t the only one skeptical of how much it could move the needle.

“It’s an important part of Prime Minister [Mark] Carney’s strategy of trying to diversify Canada’s trade relationships,” former US Trade Representative Mike Froman, who is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations, told Semafor. “On the other hand, I think Canada is fundamentally condemned by the tyranny of geography, and while they may be able to diversify their trading relationships at the margins, the fact is, 70% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border.”

It was the trade ministers’ first gathering since Trump imposed tariffs on dozens of trading partners after accusing them of facilitating forced labor. Those levies were under scrutiny Wednesday, when judges pressed the administration on whether Greer had sufficient justification.

Reporters were not granted access to any portion of the ministers’ meetings, including Greer’s opening remarks. That’s a break from recent G20 ministerials — but not necessarily a surprising one, G20 Research Group Executive Director Madeline Koch told Semafor.

“In recent years, there is less openness toward the press,” Koch said. She added that last month’s topics were “a little less fraught than trade, so that also makes sense; they’re going to be talking about something that’s so problematic.”

Greer implicitly acknowledged some of that tension at the start of the week. At a Tuesday roundtable with his EU and Japanese counterparts, he implored them to reflect positively on the new status quo.

“While we know the US approach is a robust one, and it’s changing settled patterns and settled expectations, it’s realistic,” Greer said. “My counterparts here may have something to say — don’t be too negative on it — but we’ve worked together to try to find a path forward.”