Trade talks between the United States and Canada collapsed overnight Friday into Saturday, hours before a three-day extension on 50% tariffs was set to expire, plunging the two historic trading partners into their most direct confrontation of a nearly two-year tariff standoff.
Section 338 lets a president impose duties of up to 50% on a trading partner found to discriminate against U.S. commerce relative to how it treats other countries.
Greer offered a starkly different account, saying Canada had been offered "the best treatment of any major exporter" before adding that Canadian negotiators introduced new conditions late in the process that reopened issues both sides believed had already been settled.
The U.S. and Canada have fought over Canadian lumber since 1982, through five separate rounds of anti-dumping and countervailing duty fights that trade lawyers refer to simply as Softwood Lumber I through V.
Neither side has announced a date for renewed negotiations, and both governments' public messaging over the weekend suggested each was preparing for a prolonged standoff rather than a quick return to the table.
Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed overnight, triggering 50% tariffs under a never-before-used 1930s law. Washington state's Canadian border economy is directly exposed.