Justin Trudeau will clearly not get the assurances he was hoping for from US President Joe Biden with respect to Congress’ proposed tax credit for US-made electric vehicles. If the Canadian prime minister came to Washington to hammer home that the protectionist measure would hurt the Canadian economy and violate the free trade agreement between the two countries, Biden appeared to postpone any possible exemption for Canada. .
“We are going to talk about this”, the president was satisfied to answer, on the subject of the litigation which is in the process of growing between the two governments.
In the minutes leading up to his bilateral meeting with Justin Trudeau, Joe Biden argued that the bill had not even passed in Congress yet and that he was still unaware of what final form the proposal would take.
Does the president think he could find common ground with Mr. Trudeau on this issue, which Canadians have called a potential “dominant issue” in the Canada-US relationship? “The answer is, I don’t know,” Mr. Biden dropped in the Oval Office. “I don’t know what will be in front of us, quite frankly, when it becomes law. So we’ll talk about it at that time, ”he said, appearing to rule out any possible resolution during his talks with Justin Trudeau on Thursday.
Many pleas against protectionism
The Canadian Prime Minister is in Washington for the North American Leaders’ Summit, which will bring together Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the end of the day.
On the sidelines of this summit, Justin Trudeau and his ministers have increased their meetings with members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, in order to argue that the tax credit under consideration in Congress would harm no not only to the Canadian auto industry but also to the US industry, since the two are deeply integrated. The Prime Minister also told them that the protectionist measure would violate the new Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), according to the account of these discussions delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Alongside President Biden on Thursday – and in front of the cameras – Mr. Trudeau was more diplomatic, simply arguing that Canada and the United States were “very aligned” on a range of issues including “to revive our savings for the middle class […] inclusive and fair ”.
President Biden, however, reported that his relationship with Canada was “the easiest” and “one of the best.”
While the Canadian delegation loudly denounced Americans’ protectionist measures in Washington, on Wednesday, President Biden was at a Detroit auto plant touting his stimulus plan, including the infamous tax credit that would only encourage the purchase of electric vehicles made in the United States.
Mr. Trudeau also met with President López Obrador in the morning. The latter will in turn meet with President Biden, before the three leaders meet for the “3 amigos” summit. In the meantime, Mr. Trudeau will also meet with the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.