All eyes on Trudeau’s Europe visit

Trip comes as the EU prepares to ratify trade deal with Canada

OTTAWA— Feeling a sense of relief following U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks on the future of U.S. trade with Canada, business leaders hope for a second wave of positive news out of Europe.

Corporate Canada is shifting focus to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip across the Atlantic this week.

Trudeau’s visit is expected to coincide with the European Union’s ratification vote on its free-trade deal with Canada.

“The prime minister is now off to hopefully put (the Canada-EU free trade deal) in his pocket and bring it home from Europe, which would also be good news,” John Manley, the president of the Business Council of Canada, said in an interview.

Canada is expected to ratify the deal after the European Parliament gives its OK, expected Wednesday. The next day, Trudeau will arrive in Strasbourg, France, where he will extol the merits of liberalized trade in a speech to the European Parliament.

The deal will still need the approval of the EU’s 28 national parliaments as well as some regional governments. But 90 per cent of the deal is expected to come into force under what is known as provisional application.

Trudeau will then travel to Berlin for a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, where that message is expected to be reinforced.

Trudeau will also pay his respects at the Christmas market in Berlin, where 12 people were killed when a truck driven by a Tunisian asylum seeker rammed a Christmas celebration in December.

Perrin Beatty, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, agreed that it is important for the federal government to finalize the deal with the EU.

Business leaders in Canada said they were somewhat comforted by Trump’s comments Monday after his first face-toface meeting with Trudeau.

In particular, they highlighted the president’s remark that the United States was in favour of “tweaking” the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), rather than ripping up or dramatically changing it, as Trump had vowed during the election campaign.

“We’ll be doing certain things that are going to benefit both of our countries,” Trump told reporters at a joint news conference in Washington with Trudeau.

“We will co-ordinate closely to protect jobs in our hemisphere and keep wealth on our continent.”

There are expectations in Canada that the president’s words will help lift business confidence after weeks of companies wondering what the future will hold.

But while Manley expected Canadian firms to be “somewhat placated” with regard to their concerns about the unknowns of Canada-U.S. trade, he said many key economic questions remain unanswered.

“There still has to be meat put on the bones — we don’t know what tweaking NAFTA really means,” said Manley, a former Liberal cabinet minister.

He said firms are still looking for clarity on the future of the congressional Republicans’ proposed border-adjustment tax, which could have serious negative effects on Canadian exports to the U.S.

Manley, whose group represents about 150 chief executives, also pointed to the possibility that Trump’s promised infrastructure program could be fraught with Buy America provisions, which could force Canada to respond with similar measures.