Canadian finance minister also said his government would prefer to hash out all details on trade in one broad negotiation instead of sector by sector.
Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the country would be willing to hold early talks on the North American free trade pact with the United States, which is scheduled for joint review next year.
“If the American administration indicated to us that they wanted to advance that date and have those conversations, we would be ready,” LeBlanc told Bloomberg News on Friday. He added that the nations have a lot of common interests between the three of them.
The United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA) went into effect in 2020 and is scheduled for joint review in 2026. The pact replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA.
LeBlanc said the Canadian government would prefer to hash out all details on trade in one broad negotiation instead of sector by sector over the course of weeks.
Ottawa also wants to move quickly on trade agreements to prevent China from undercutting North American markets with predatory pricing, he said.
Canada put tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles as well as aluminum and steel last year. On March 8, China retaliated by imposing tariffs on over $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products.
LeBlanc said Canada wants to work with the United States to stop China from “dumping into the North American market,” Bloomberg reported.
LeBlanc’s comments come after President Donald Trump went ahead with 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Canada and Mexico.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded with retaliatory tariffs on $CA30 billion (US$21 billion) of U.S. goods.
On Thursday, Trump paused tariffs on USMCA-compliant exports from the neighboring nations for a month.
Ottawa then announced it would suspend an additional CA$125 billion of tariffs on American products, which were scheduled to go into effect on March 25. Ottawa’s initial 25 percent tariffs on American goods are still active, which LeBlanc said Canada will continue to work on removing if the United States does the same.
