Chrystia Freeland speaking to the media following her lunch-time address at the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations
Photo Credit: RCI / C. Kilkenny

Trade Minister reassures business crowd in Montreal

Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Trade Minister, addressed a packed room of Montreal’s business community this afternoon. Ms. Freeland assured those in attendance that despite one of the most globally protectionist environments in recent history, Canada is poised to prosper.

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“At a time when so many other countries are closing their doors, are saying they’re not interested in foreign investment, are saying they’re not interested in trade, you can come to Canada and be assured that we understand and believe in being open to the global economy.”  

She reassured the the audience that the trade relationship with the United States is safe. Despite the rhetoric from President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign, the trade relationship between Canada and the United States is balanced.

She stressed that for 35 American states, Canada is their largest export market. This echoed the words of Prime Minister Trudeau earlier this week, who along with David McNaughton, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., delivered a video message aimed at the new American Congress and Senators reminding them Canada is not the problem.

The States actually have a small trade surplus with Canada at the moment, in contrast to the billion dollar deficits it’s facing with the European Union, Mexico and China.

In a recent interview with CBC Radio, Freeland was also reassuring in the face of Trump’s declaration that he’d be opening “a total renegotiation of NAFTA“, which he described as a disaster for the U.S.

Freeland said Canada is open to the process: “All of our trading agreements are living entities. Trading relationships don’t get set in stone the minute you sign a trade deal.” She told host Chris Hall of the radio program, The House, that she’s currently renewing the trade agreement with Chile and renewing and updating the agreement with Israel.

“When it comes to NAFTA, we’ve made about a dozen significant updates to it since NAFTA was first signed and entered into force. So talking about modernisation and updating of NAFTA is a very normal routine thing for us to do.” she said.

While Freeland is also currently in negotiations with the United States over the Softwood Lumber agreement, a perennial source of conflict, discussion and agreement for over a century now, she says when it comes to NAFTA there is one area Canada would like to see addressed:

“We think that increasing mobility, particularly for professionals across the NAFTA space is something that would be really helpful.”

In the meantime, Freeland awaits the final ratification of what she describes as “a big success” in getting the CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) signed, by all of the members of European Union. The ratification vote is expected in February and she says she is cautiously optimistic.

During the same month Freeland will be engaging in exploratory talks with China with a view to an eventual free-trade agreement with that country.

As she acknowledged in Montreal today, 2017 “will be complicated”.

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