Trump's top trade envoy says U.S. 'comfortable' with state of relationship with Canada

Trump's top trade envoy says U.S. 'comfortable' with state of relationship with Canada

Greer says 2 sides still talk about potential deals, but 'no urgency'

U.S. President Donald Trump is "comfortable" with where things stand with Canada — his country's once closest ally — and is in no rush to reach a new trade deal, according to his top trade envoy.

"The reality is President Trump is comfortable where we are on Canada," United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a Friday morning interview with the American network CNBC.

"They call us now and then and we have good conversations about potential deals. But there's no urgency on our side."

The two countries have been embroiled in a trade dispute since Trump was re-elected, but the relationship further soured after talks to reach a deal collapsed at the 11th hour last month.

Trade 'war' or not, are Canada and the United States now dug in?

Carney says he's still regularly speaking with Trump despite latest trade rift

The U.S. side maintains Canada walked away from a good deal. The Canadian side has accused the Americans of not negotiating in good faith and encroaching on Canada's sovereignty.

Greer, who mainly spoke to CNBC about new trade negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, was asked about the state of the trade relationship with Canada.

"We're still getting what we need from them in terms of oil, gas, potash, all of these things. We're shipping [agricultural products] back and forth across the border, so there's still a lot of strong trade between the two countries," he said.

The U.S. slapped 50 per cent duties on roughly $28 billion of Canadian goods on Aug. 22. Canada started collecting retaliatory tariffs Sept. 8. The summer measures are on top of existing levies on Canadian steel, aluminum, autos and lumber that were imposed earlier.

Starting next week the Trump administration plans to ban the import of certain products including Canadian alcohol, motorcycles and molasses.

Trump has also ratcheted up his jabs at Canada since trade talks fell apart, including posting to social media a map of North America with the U.S. flag covering Canada and another post showing a cartoon version of himself standing over a sprawled out Prime Minister Mark Carney during a hockey game saying, "Get up, governor."

He has also signed an order to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America."