At the same time, Canada’s follow‑through is uneven in regions that could diversify its trade base.
The Globe and Mail reported that Canada and South Africa look like natural middle‑power allies – both are resource‑rich and want to diversify away from US tariffs – but their trade relationship remains largely unfulfilled.
South African politicians have embraced Carney’s Davos line that “middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” and see Canada as a “key potential trading partner” in the Americas, especially in agriculture.
Ottawa’s Africa Strategy pledged an “ambitious economic agenda,” and South Africa has become more appealing with stronger growth, the end of electricity shortages, a firmer currency and a pitch as a gateway to a wider African market through a continental trade agreement, according to the Globe and Mail.
Yet after a year of meetings, only modest steps have emerged: talks on a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement that analysts expect will take years; a South African “trade mission” that was effectively a farm delegation to a Saskatchewan machinery show; and a delayed FinDev Canada office in Cape Town that will cover the whole continent rather than focus on South Africa.