Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks about Carney\u2019s year in office and says it is \u2018more of the same.\u2019 <\/p>\n
TORONTO \u2014 Prime Minister Mark Carney should spell out to Canadians what leverage the country has over the United States in coming trade negotiations, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asserted on Sunday.<\/p>\n
That comes after Carney rejected characterizing energy and critical minerals as \u201cleverage\u201d in talks to renew the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, also known as CUSMA.<\/p>\n
Poilievre said Carney should explain how he intends to secure an end to sectoral tariffs and a renewal of the free-trade pact.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf energy and minerals are not going to be leveraged for Canada in these negotiations, what leverage does Mr. Carney claim to have?\u201d Poilievre said while speaking with reporters at a press conference in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can\u2019t tell us what leverage we have, what demands he\u2019s making, what tariffs he wants to get removed, and when and if he will even get a deal at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carney said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday that he simply views these sectors as future trade opportunities with the United States — or with other trading partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cReclassifying that as leverage, I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s the way I look at that. I look it as trade,\u201d Carney said. \u201cIt\u2019s looking at, is it in our mutual interest to trade more? Where is it? And if it\u2019s not there, we have other options.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister said Canada is not about to halt any such trade with the U.S., but suggested further integration in those sectors remains up in the air amid the ongoing trade war.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould we be further integrating our energy markets with the United States at a time they view that as, quote, \u2018leverage\u2019?\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n
United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer cautioned a group of Canadian politicians in Washington on Wednesday that Ottawa shouldn\u2019t try to use energy as leverage in the trade talks.<\/p>\n
Sources who attended that meeting told The Canadian Press Greer said greater collaboration on energy shouldn\u2019t come with the condition of U.S. concessions. Greer also said the Trump administration is not looking to disrupt the energy relationship between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said about a week ago that Canada\u2019s energy and natural resources are \u201cCanada\u2019s strongest cards\u201d in renegotiating the trade deal.<\/p>\n
Poilievre said his strategy would be to \u201cbuild up a massive strategic reserve of our energy and our minerals and use that as leverage to get tariff-free access to the United States economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Negotiations between Canada and White House to remove American tariffs against Canada\u2019s steel, aluminum, automotive and forestry sectors froze last fall. <\/p>\n
Talks stalled after Trump became angered by an Ontario advertising campaign that quoted former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.<\/p>\n
The continental trade pact is meantime approaching a mandatory review, which is scheduled to start by this summer.<\/p>\n
Greer has said the United States is unlikely to rubber-stamp the deal in July, suggesting longer negotiations are in store.<\/p>\n
Last week, when Carney\u2019s Canada-U.S. economic advisory council met for the first time, the federal government made clear it has no intentions of making any concessions before a broader negotiation on CUSMA renewal.<\/p>\n
Carney said last month that America\u2019s sectoral tariffs remain Canada\u2019s greatest trade \u201cirritant\u201d to resolve.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said in the Friday interview there normally would have been a broader discussion about a series of \u201ctechnical\u201d trade issues in the coming review.<\/p>\n
He pointed to greater regulatory harmonization on \u201call aspects digital,\u201d such as combating online harms, as one example.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not really on the table now,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said Ottawa does desire greater integration and co-operation with the United States when it\u2019s \u201cabsolutely recognized that it\u2019s in both countries\u2019 interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Canada must now be \u201ccareful, to a degree\u201d on further integration in energy and other markets, as tariffs that violate the spirit of the agreement dig into key economic sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a question about whether that alignment is still there,\u201d Carney said. \u201cCan we really rely, ultimately, on what\u2019s written in the agreement, what\u2019s in a dispute settlement mechanism? That\u2019s a very different environment than was there previously.\u201d<\/p>\n
With files from Kyle Duggan in Ottawa, Kathryn Mannie in Toronto and Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks about Carney\u2019s year in office and says it is \u2018more of the same.\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[525,234,111,290,113,3090],"class_list":{"0":"post-30370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mark-carney","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-mark-carney","11":"tag-national","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-utilities"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}