The Trudeau government’s so-called Team Canada project has taken a first warmup lap around Washington.
Trade Minister Mary Ng met there with business groups and Canadian diplomats at the outset of what could be a volatile U.S. election year.
“I thought I’d like to get here really, really quickly,” Ng said in an interview Friday at the Canadian Embassy.
Ng was appointed by the prime minister last week to co-lead an advocacy effort in the U.S. with Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
It’s a sequel to Ottawa’s approach during Donald Trump’s presidency; Canadian officials were constantly traveling to the U.S., amid fear the then-president might cancel NAFTA or impose tariffs.
Ng says the goal now is about preparing for possible U.S. election outcomes. But more than that, Ottawa describes it as regular maintenance of Canada’s most important foreign relationship.
Ng says she’ll be meeting repeatedly with business, labour and civil-society groups: “It’s intended to be fairly broad… It’s about listening: What’s on their mind?”
Her first visit in the role featured more fact-finding than advocacy.
She attended a forum with numerous companies that operate across the border, arranged by the Canadian American Business Council.
She and Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, asked the companies questions like: Where do you operate? What’s going well? What are your challenges? Who should we be meeting with?
“It was a listening session,” Hillman said afterward. “We got a lot of really good feedback and more importantly there was a huge interest in being part of the endeavour.”
Trump versus Biden
Most polls show Trump leading in a general-election rematch and the prospect of a second Trump presidency is increasingly real.
Trump’s current platform isn’t quite as dramatic when it comes to Canada issues as it was in 2016.
But he is threatening new worldwide tariffs; he’s complained about an autos case that Canada and Mexico won under the trade deal that replaced NAFTA, and Trump’s former trade czar suggests the U.S. will want the autos rules changed.
Trump is also calling for a review of NATO, questioning why the U.S. promises to defend countries that don’t spend adequately on their own defence.
Trump has also joined the chorus of Republicans publicly complaining about a spike in irregular migration through Canada.
Already under the Biden administration, Canada faces some pressure to end visa-free travel from Mexico as a result of this migration bump.
There was a reminder this week that, despite a general alignment with the Biden team on most issues, some trade irritants are bipartisan.
Before her visit to the U.S., Ng denounced a hike in softwood lumber duties.
“Entirely unwarranted,” is how she referred to adjustments to existing duties on several Canadian lumber producers.
Canada estimates the new average duty at 13.86 per cent, up from the previous 8.05 per cent. Some producers will get hit harder, some less so.
Ottawa is threatening to file cases in continental, global and U.S.-based trade tribunals.
Meanwhile, a former member of Trudeau’s Canada-U.S. team has expressed some skepticism about the current approach.
Former ambassador to Washington David McNaughton questioned the decision to announce this Team Canada advocacy in advance.
“You do the strategy. You don’t talk strategy.” McNaughton told Politico.
He also questioned the disparaging references from the Trudeau government likening its Conservative opponents to Trump – like calling them “MAGA.”
“I don’t think it’s particularly wise,” said McNaughton, now the Canadian president for the data-analytics company Palantir.
“I would not be doing that … I don’t think making derogatory remarks about one of the candidates for president of the United States is a particularly useful thing to do.”
