Not ruling out any scenario, including the return of Donald Trump to the White House, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is establishing a new Team Canada to defend the country’s interests ahead of the November presidential election in the United States .
The Prime Minister entrusts the mandate to carry out the mission of this new team to two ministers: the Minister of Industry François-Philippe Champagne, and the Minister of International Trade, Mary Ng.
The two ministers will call on experts and business leaders and union leaders as well as invite provincial elected officials to participate in this campaign aimed at strengthening relations between Canada and the United States.
During Donald Trump’s first term, Mr. Trudeau turned to Minister Chrystia Freeland, who was then Minister of Foreign Affairs, to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Negotiations were long and difficult, but a new agreement was initialed in November 2018 and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) came into force on 1er July 2020.
Mr. Trudeau announced this approach on the last day of the federal cabinet retreat in Montreal aimed at preparing for the resumption of parliamentary work on January 29. The announcement also comes as Donald Trump is heading for an easy victory in the Republican primaries after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis threw in the towel on Sunday.
The presidential elections and the consequences they could have on Canadian-American relations were one of the topics on the agenda of this cabinet retreat.
On Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada is preparing for any potential outcome in the race for the White House in 2024, whether it is the re-election of President Joe Biden or a second term for Mr. Trump.
Minister François-Philippe Champagne, for his part, maintained that the Canadian and American economies have always been linked, but that they are even more so now, and that millions of jobs in both countries depend on this stability.
“One thing former President Trump understands is jobs,” said Minister Champagne, adding that “millions of jobs depend on what we have achieved over the last decade.”
He went on to say that economic integration will be a “key” to the future. This includes, he said, semiconductors, biotechnology and the automotive sector. In 2022, Canada pushed for an exemption to a provision of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act to ensure that electric vehicles made with Canadian batteries or components would still be eligible for additional benefits. important American tax credits.
That exclusion — initially, credits were much stricter for U.S.-only content — helped Canada attract several major battery factories last year. Mr. Champagne told The Canadian Press in December that battery factories like the one Volkswagen is building in Ontario would not have happened without the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
“It would have been much more difficult,” he said. I think the IRA was the catalyst for reindustrialization in North America. »
Laura Dawson, an expert on Canada-U.S. relations and current executive director of the Future Borders Coalition, says Canada needs to be prepared, whoever wins, because Messrs. Both Biden and Trump have protectionist tendencies.
“This is an important time to really take stock of this relationship and reinvest in this relationship, because for Canada and the United States, it is of existential importance both for the economy and for security,” he said. -she clarified.
Mme Dawson is part of a group of experts who will make presentations to cabinet on Tuesday on U.S.-Canada relations.
She will be accompanied by Kirsten Hillman, Canadian Ambassador to Washington, Flavio Volpe, President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, and Marc-André Blanchard, Senior Vice-President and Head of CDPQ Worldwide.
With The Canadian Press