Canada’s trade minister visits Brussels in bid to boost mutual commerce

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Canada wants to boost trade with the EU, its trade minister has said, as tensions with the US persist over President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

Mary Ng visited Brussels this weekend to hold talks with EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

Ng said that the two sides could better exploit their existing trade deal. Since it came into force in 2017, EU-Canada trade has grown by two-thirds but the pair discussed how to boost it further.

“Do I think we could do better? Certainly,” Ng said. Both sides should seek to “enable our businesses to get into each other’s markets” and “always find ways of doing more of” that.

Ng said 98 per cent of Canadian business were small or medium-sized and some struggled with the paperwork required to export. Canada’s government was “providing some additional support for small and medium sized businesses to pursue their growth into international markets”, she said.

She said the Canada and the EU were also collaborating on critical minerals, with EU companies keen to tap her country’s reserves of metals used in green products such as electric vehicles and wind turbines.

EU countries want Ottawa to build pipelines to move oil and gas to Canada’s east coast where it could be exported to Europe, after Europe banned most Russian supplies.

Objections from provinces and indigenous communities have held up projects. But Ng said that Trump’s tariff threats could change that. “Canadians are really looking at what are the kinds of things we can do to help us be more resilient,” she said.

There was “much consensus now among the provincial and territorial leaders that we will remove barriers within our country so that we truly can have free trade within Canada. That is something that has eluded us.”

But she said consultation with indigenous people, who own some of the land which mining and energy projects would exploit, would continue.

Last week Trump announced 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods, except oil at 10 per cent, only to then suspend them for a month. With 75 per cent of Canadian exports destined for the US, Ottawa is keen to strike a permanent deal with Washington.

Ng said Canada intends “to keep working with the Americans to find a more permanent solution” on trade and Canada was keen to “collaborate”.

“The Americans are talking about a golden age of economic growth. We believe that Canada can certainly be a part of that, working with the president . . . and his government,” she said.

Ng added that she wanted to restart stalled talks with the UK on an upgraded trade agreement. “Come back to the negotiating table. I believe we can find a solution,” she said.

The UK broke off negotiations a year ago after Canada reimposed tariffs on cheese when London refused access for Canadian beef from hormone-treated animals.