U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cited Canada’s recent trade agreement with China that reduced tariffs on some Chinese EVs as a reason for not dropping tariffs on Canada.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cited Canada’s recent trade agreement with China that reduced tariffs on some Chinese EVs as a reason for not dropping tariffs on Canada.
That’s the plan with all the deal making with other countries.
Makes trying to get a deal with the Americans much less important. And makes the Canadian poison much stronger in those potential negotiations.
Basically. On this particular subject I think Carney’s government has walked a pretty solid line. We’re still negotiating with the US in order to get the best outcomes we can for Canadian companies in the short term - you can’t just pivot to new customers overnight - while ultimately working towards a future where we’re no long as dependent on them.
The sad reality is that we’ll never be able to avoid the fact that America is a better customer for many of our products than anyone else, because we can ship to them over land and no one else can (Mexico has little to no overlap with us in terms of major exports other than car manufacturing). But that cuts both ways; Americans love buying from us because we can ship over land. It’s cheaper and faster. So no matter what Bessent says, there’s always going to be room for us to get some deals made, even if we’re never going to see a return to completely tariffless trade.