Canada’s finance minister said the country can negotiate a better trade deal with the Trump administration than other nations have received, pushing back on the idea that it may have to settle for a new baseline tariff on all exports to the US.
“We buy more from the US than China, Japan, the UK and France combined, so we’re not in the same league as others,” Francois-Philippe Champagne said in an interview.
“The competitiveness of North America depends on what happens between Canada and the United States,” he said, pointing to Canada’s wealth of critical minerals and energy, the integrated supply chains across the border and its status as the largest supplier of aluminium to the US.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump have agreed to try to hammer out a deal by July 21 to govern the two countries’ trade relationship, which saw them exchange more than US$900 billion in goods and services last year.
The US had a trade deficit of US$36 billion with Canada in 2024, according to US government data, mostly because it guzzles millions of barrels a day of Canadian oil and fuels. Excluding energy, the US had a trade surplus with its northern neighbour.
The US, Canada and Mexico have an existing trade pact that Trump signed during his first term. But the president paid little heed to it as he placed import taxes of 50 per cent on foreign steel and aluminium, along with levies on cars and trucks.
“The endgame for us is to have the best possible deal for Canadian workers and the Canadian industry,” Champagne said. “We have, compared to many countries that are negotiating with the United States, already a trade agreement in place.”