It’s time to treat the country as a modern, diversifying economy, trade experts say With tensions once again heating up in Canada’s trade negotiations with the United States, and the Trump administration blaming the “elbows up” approach, Canadian officials are scrambling to build new relationships, including with one of its closest neighbours: Mexico. The effort began at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., in June, where Prime Minister Mark Carney invited Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to meet with him privately, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said from Mexico City Tuesday.
Anand is in the Mexican capital with Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to build a “bilateral economic relationship.” But the trip has prompted some experts to ask why it didn’t happen sooner. Carney’s first trip abroad was to France and the United Kingdom, where he discussed not only broadening trade, but security ties as well and invited King Charles to deliver the throne speech. While France and Britain are key allies, Mexico is a bigger trading partner than those two countries, said Laura Macdonald, a political science professor at Carleton University. “There’s a historic reluctance by Canada to engage seriously with Mexico,” Macdonald said. “And there’s a tendency for them to fail when they try to work together.”
Anand and Champagne’s visit signals a willingness to change that, Macdonald added. …Source: cbc.ca/news/politics
