US President Donald Trump has upended relations with several traditional allies, but none perhaps more so than Canada, the world’s 11th-largest economy and a country with which the United States shares the planet’s longest land border. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st state”—an unsubtle threat to absorb its territory; he has imposed sanctions on Ottawa, harming its companies and consumers; and he has driven Canada to look to Europe and elsewhere for stable trade and defence partnerships.
On the sidelines of this week’s UN General Assembly, I caught up with Anita Anand, Canada’s foreign minister. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.
Let us start with the trade war that your country has with the United States. President Donald Trump says, “We don’t need Canada. They need us.” How do you respond to that?
Our economies, which have been integrated for decades upon decades, are mutually interdependent. If you look at the auto sector, for example, prior to a car finally being produced, it travels back and forth across the border between Canada and the United States several times. It is just one example of the way in which, over the decades, the auto industry has become symbiotic. This is the case with many other sectors of our economy. Part of what the negotiators are focusing on is the sectoral tariffs, outside of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, in steel, aluminium, lumber, and auto, for example, where the economies and supply chains are integrated. They are trying to reach a result that benefits both populations.
Countries are responding to Trump’s tariffs in a variety of ways. Some have tried flattery and gifts; some are retaliating. Your administration has taken a tough stance—a strategy that helped get Prime Minister Mark Carney elected. I am curious whether there is a sense now that this path also comes with a steep economic cost. And if so, how is your administration thinking through those costs and what it means for the Canadian people?
A vast majority of goods continue to pass through the Canada-United States border every day without tariffs under the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. The work that we will continue to do is to act in the sovereign best interests of our country. That means not only working on trade with the United States but also diversifying our trade relationships across the board.
Prior to Prime Minister Carney’s election, we were and continue to be the only G-7 country that has a free trade agreement with every other G-7 country. In addition, over the past year, Canada has signed over 20 security, defence, and economic agreements with countries around the world in service of the trade diversification agenda.
