Trudeau looks to turn the page on China, India with major foreign trip

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be looking to turn the page on his widely criticized trips to China and India — and land some new trade partners for Canada — when he embarks Thursday on a major 10-day foreign tour, including two major international summits with leaders from around the globe.

The stakes will be high, starting with Trudeau’s first stop in Peru for the 8th Summit of the Americas, which plays host every four years to more than 30 countries across the Western Hemisphere. There had been speculation that Canada, the U.S. and Mexico would announce some form of an agreement in principle on a new North American Free Trade Agreement. But while high-level talks are still expected to take place, the absence of U.S. President Donald Trump — he’s staying home, ostensibly to oversee the possible American response to a chemical attack in Syria — has dampened talk of ceremonial surprises.

Instead, the meeting is likely to be dominated by the political crisis in Venezuela, where president Nicolas Maduro, who will also not take part, has abandoned all pretence of democratic rule, cracking down on dissent in the face of spiralling economic calamity.

Canada has been an outspoken critic of Maduro and will no doubt join the chorus of condemnation in Peru while pushing for a tougher stand against corruption throughout the Americas.

Trudeau will also meet with leaders from the Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc comprising Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, all of which have free trade deals and close political relationships - with Canada. He’ll also get a rare chance to meet with Latin America’s largest trading bloc, Mercosur, which counts powerhouse Brazil as well as Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay among its members.

With the fate of NAFTA up in the air and efforts afoot to diversify trade away from the U.S., Canada and Mercosur quietly held a first round of free trade talks in March.

University of Ottawa professor Roland Paris, formerly Trudeau’s foreign policy adviser, says advancing trade discussions with Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance would top his to-do list.