Amid Trump trade worries, China tariffs give Canada ‘firm’ ground: Freeland

Chrystia Freeland pointed to Canada's experience with incoming U.S. president Donald Trump, as well as alignment on Chinese tariffs, as helping Ottawa navigate trade negotiations.

Chrystia Freeland says that a unified stance towards China will give Canada a “firm foundation” in upcoming trade negotiations with the United States and president-elect Donald Trump.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Freeland spoke to reporters Friday after the first meeting of the newly revived cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations, which she will again chair.

She compared the committee to the task force struck during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing ministers together regularly to address an “urgent issue.” In this case, it’s the Canada-U.S. relationship, which is set to see the border and trade relations in the spotlight under the incoming Trump administration.

Trump, who was declared the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Wednesday, promised during the campaign that he would levy blanket tariffs on all goods coming into the country as part of his economic strategy. He also said he would look to renegotiate the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), which was signed under his first administration.

News that Trump is set to return to the White House in 2025 has spurred consternation among leaders in Canada’s steel and aluminum industries. The first Trump administration levied 25-per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and 10-per cent tariffs on aluminum in 2018, a tactic that lasted for roughly a year and saw Canada impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

But Freeland said Friday that Canada “learned a lot” from its negotiations with Trump in his first term.

“What’s important about that whole experience is that Canada and the United States agreed, at the end of the day, that it didn’t make sense for our two countries to have those tariffs imposed,” she said.

“To me, that is a very powerful proof point of really the fundamental economic rationale, the fundamental economic benefit that both countries get from the economic relationship.”