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MILWAUKEE — US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday declined to 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.
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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 added. “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 also said that “it’s hard to say at this point” whether the US might impose tariffs on additional Canadian goods, given the US is “trying to get our deficit down.”
Greer revealed trade ministers would release “a joint statement against the weaponization of food,” as well as a statement addressing “excess capacity and production” before they leave town Thursday.
“Everybody in there is generally in agreement, but you might have a few holdouts that don’t want to sign it, and so we’re not going to have a consensus document,” he said of the latter.