Canada’s new prime minister to focus on trade diversification and security

TORONTO (ICIS)–Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, will focus on diversifying the country’s trade relationships and improving its security, he said on Friday after officially taking over from Justin Trudeau.

The new government’s top priority would be “protecting Canadian workers and their families in the face of unjustified foreign trade action”, he said with reference to the US tariffs on goods from Canada.

Canada would be “building here at home” to become stronger while working “with different partners” abroad, he said.

Carney plans to travel to France and the UK next week to talk about trade diversification and security with European leaders, he said.

Although he has no immediate plan to meet US President Donald Trump, Carney was looking forward to speaking with Trump “at the appropriate moment”, he said.

Canada joining the US
Carney explicitly rejected Trump’s repeated suggestions that Canada should join the US as its 51st state.

Following a G7 foreign ministers meeting in La Malbaie in Canada’s Quebec province on Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Trump’s position is that Canada would be better off joining the US “for economic purposes.”

Asked about these remarks, Carney said: “It’s crazy, [Trump’s] point is crazy, that’s it.”

“We will never, ever, in any shape or form, be part of the United States”, he said.

Regarding the trade conflict, Carney reminded that Canada was the largest client of the US in many industries.

“We respect the United States, we respect President Trump”, he said.

Canada understood Trump’s priority to address “the scourge of fentanyl”, which was also a problem in Canada.

It also understood the importance Trump places on American workers and jobs, Carney said and went on to say: “We want him [Trump], and his administration, to understand the importance we put on Canadian workers and jobs”.

Carney noted that Trump was a “successful businessman and deal maker”, and he expressed the hope that the US will understand Canada’s position.

As for Canada’s consumer carbon tax, Carney said that the new government would move quickly to abolish it.

Carney said previously he would retain Canada’s industrial carbon pricing. Carbon pricing has been important in attracting investments in low-carbon projects, led by Dow’s Path2Zero petrochemicals complex under construction in Alberta province.

He did not say when he will call an election.

Carney, who is a former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, does not have a seat in parliament.

In the wake of Trudeau’s resignation announcement on 6 January and the trade conflict with the US, Carney’s Liberal Party has caught up with the opposition Conservatives in opinion polls about the next federal election. Elections must be held before the end of October.

Please also visit US tariffs, policy – impact on chemicals and energy

Thumbnail photo of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; source: Liberal Party of Canada