US President Donald Trump has again floated the idea of Canada becoming the fifty-first state. He says he wants that due to his unsubstantiated claim that the US is paying 200 billion dollars a year to Canada. As recently as a couple of days ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a Canada-US economic summit that he takes Trump’s notion seriously. The summit, held in Toronto, was aimed at bolstering the Canadian economy in the face of continued threats from Washington.
More than one hundred business and union leaders, federal cabinet ministers, indigenous leaders, and public policy experts attended the summit. Trudeau welcomed them saying as Canadians they have to make significant changes in the face of what’s become a rapidly changing relationship with the US.
“We are in a moment. A moment that we have to meet for Canadians to see not just how we get through this particular challenge over the next thirty days or few months, but how to get through and thrive and grow stronger over the next four years. And into what may be a more challenging long-term political situation with the United States,” Trudeau said.
The looming threat of tariffs and the uncertainty in the trade relationship have many business and union leaders urging Ottawa to find other global trading partners and strengthen internal trade within Canada. Trudeau agreed, adding that Canada is facing the most serious industrial threat it has ever faced.
“There are three areas we need to think about. Canada, the United States, and internationally. First of all, in Canada. It’s about time we had genuine free trade within Canada,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau says Canada has to become more resilient, and to do that it means removing many of the obstacles that exist in trade between the provinces, that includes a regulatory environment that often makes it difficult to move goods from one province to another.
Anita Anand is Canada’s minister for Internal Trade, she says removing provincial trade barriers could add 15 percent to the country’s GDP, and amount to about 200 billion dollars. Anand also says another focus of the Canadian government is to rapidly develop more export markets globally.
“Canada is the only G7 country that has a free trade agreement with every other G7 country. That means while we address the situation with the US, while we move to eliminate inter-provincial barriers to trade, we are also ensuring that we diversify Canadian supply chains, for Canadian manufactured products, for Canadian natural resources, for Canadian critical minerals,” Anand said.
Those critical minerals according to Trudeau are one of the reasons that Trump is driven to try to annex Canada, by economic force if need be. Trudeau says those at the summit also discussed how to ensure Canada-US trade works for both countries and that Canadians must accept the fact that their proximity to the US means that north-south trade will continue for many years to come.
Francois Philippe Champagne is Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.
“I can tell you in our conversations we had in Washington, there’s never been a better time to make the case for Canada. We know we have a reprieve, but we need to double down in making sure that our American friends understand the integrated nature of our relationship. The fact that we buy more from the United States, than China, Japan, the UK, and France combined,” Champagne
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Trudeau was off to Europe over the weekend to try to strengthen Canada’s trade and security ties with European allies, in the face of Trump’s threats over Canada’s economy and sovereignty. Trump has also vowed to unleash tariffs against Europe, and in the past days Trump announced that as of today (Monday, February 10th), he would slap 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including those from Canada and Mexico.
The premiers of Quebec and Ontario are critical of Trump’s announcements, saying it creates more economic uncertainty. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says this is the next four years, shifting goalposts and constant chaos.
