Greer urges G20: back Trump tariffs, counter China overcapacity — SkimNews
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- US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told G20 trade ministers in Milwaukee to address industrial overcapacity, avoid coercive food trade actions, and re-examine the post-WWII tariff system underpinning the WTO.
- Greer singled out China's industrial subsidies and non-market policies, echoing language from a September G20 finance ministers meeting in Asheville where all members except China backed action against "non-market" practices.
- Greer criticized the WTO's Most Favored Nation principle as constraining responses to "distortive policies" and defended US tariffs on 59 countries and the EU over forced labor allegations.
- A coalition of 28 mostly Western countries agreed at the G20 sidelines to pursue more tariffs on Chinese steel, while the OECD-led Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity — which excludes top producers China and India — called for an end to subsidies for loss-making mills.
- Canada is using the same summit to pivot away from US trade, with minister Maninder Sidhu citing a 17% ($33 billion) increase in non-US trade and meeting India's Piyush Goyal, even as the Trump administration banned Canadian alcohol, motorcycles, and dairy imports.
Why it matters: The US is using a G20 it hosts to rally consensus against China while simultaneously escalating tariffs against Canada — a G7 neighbor — undercutting its own diplomatic forum. The OECD steel forum's call for subsidy restraint excludes China and India, the two largest producers, making the 'consensus' largely symbolic.
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