Canada holds firm on trade pivot as energy minister heads to India

We need to protect and empower the Canadian economy and trade diversification is fundamental to that, says

By Erik Hertzberg and Derek Decloet

  Canada won’t be derailed in its efforts to diversify trade away from the US despite the latest threats from the Trump administration, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said. 

President Donald Trump took a swipe at Prime Minister Mark Carney on social media on Saturday, saying he would place a 100 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods if Canada becomes a “drop off port” for Chinese exports to the US. That was a response to a recent agreement that will see Canada reduce tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in return for trade concessions on food, including canola and beef.

 

 

Canada isn’t negotiating a free trade deal with China, Anand reiterated in an interview Sunday with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. But the country has no choice but to forge ahead with its strategy to double its non-US exports within 10 years, she suggested.

 

“We need to protect and empower the Canadian economy and trade diversification is fundamental to that,” Anand said. “That is why we went to China, that’s why we will be going to India and that is why we won’t put all our eggs in one basket.”

 

Energy Minister Tim Hodgson is heading to Goa, in western India, where he’ll attend an energy conference and hold meetings with officials in Indian industry and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. 

 

The two sides are expected to talk about cooperation and potential deals on critical minerals, uranium and liquefied natural gas. Canada has an abundance of those resources. Carney is also planning to visit India soon, and he’ll be making a trip to Australia in March. 

 

Anand emphasized, however, that Canada and the US still have a strong relationship and she expects that will continue. 

 

It’s one of the world’s largest bilateral trade relationships, in fact. Despite ongoing tensions over tariffs, the US exported about $280 billion of goods to Canada in the first 10 months of last year — more than to any other country — while importing $322 billion from Canada, according to US Commerce Department data. 

 

The countries’ automotive industries are particularly intertwined, which is one reason why Canada’s deal with China — though limited to just 49,000 Chinese EVs annually — struck a nerve in the US. 

 

“We have a highly integrated market with Canada,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “The goods can cross across the border during the manufacturing process six times. And we can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the US.”