Canada and the U.S. engage in cross-border talks
U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY OFFERS ASSURING WORDS
With far tougher talks on the horizon, President Donald Trump’s treasury secretary offered up some reassuring words Friday in Ottawa on the U.S.-Canada relationship.
In his first official visit to the national capital, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin met with senior members of the Trudeau cabinet and took part in roundtable meetings with business leaders.
The agenda featured a number of cross-border topics that could have a significant impact on the Canadian economy, including U.S. tax reform and trade issues surrounding sectors from lumber to dairy to energy.
Mnuchin, a former hedge fund manager, has now met with Canadian counterpart Finance Minister Bill Morneau five times since he was sworn in a few months ago. And with NAFTA talks on the horizon, more delicate discussions are surely ahead.
Trump has called the 23-year-old NAFTA the worst trade deal the U.S. has ever negotiated and has pledged to scrap the agreement if it can’t be renegotiated to his satisfaction.
Formal talks have yet to begin and it remains unclear how the deal, which is deeply important to both economies, might be retooled.
After Friday’s meetings, Mnuchin sought to ease concerns, but said it was still premature to get into specifics about what Washington’s eventual asks might look like.
“I think whatever we do, our objective is to make sure that this is positive for the U.S. economy and positive for the Canadian economy to continue to allow the commerce that we have between us,” he told a news conference.
Since Trump’s election win, the Bank of Canada and Canadian business leaders have repeatedly expressed concerns about the uncertainty related to potential protectionist measures in the U.S., as well as Trump’s tax-reform proposals.
Some business leaders fear that corporate tax cuts under discussion in the U.S. could hurt Canadian competitiveness.
Morneau said his meetings with Mnuchin shed more light on some of these unknowns.
“What we heard today from Secretary Mnuchin is a resolve to move forward on tax reform in the United States and an agenda for trying to get at that (done) as rapidly as possible,” Morneau said.
“And that’s positive from our standpoint, because that clarity is good.”
Canada’s relationship-building exercise with the new U.S. administration has involved most members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.