[...]Bill Morneau told the Financial Times that while Canada would want to strike a trade deal with the UK once it had left the EU because “affinity” between the two countries is high, this was far from the top of his priorities. “We’re not talking as much about Brexit as you are in the UK,” he said.
While he nodded to the traditional closeness between the two countries, saying that Canadians hold “pretty dear” the relationship, he was clear that a trade deal is not the top of his agenda.
“From our perspective, clearly the Nafta [North American Free Trade Agreement] relationship [with the US] is of huge importance. That’s our biggest relationship by a very big margin, so that’s important to us. And then the Ceta relationship [with the EU] opens up a very significant market. Our opening of exploratory talks with China … we do see as important and as the UK figures its next steps, that will be important too.”
He said he had not thought enough about the concept of a Commonwealth trading bloc to give any answer on the subject.
His comments align with the views of many economists that distance and the size of trading partners matter more than historical links in determining trading relationships between countries.
Mr Morneau said Canada had not yet had discussions with president-elect Donald Trump about Nafta, but Canada thought the US had a significant interest in maintaining the current arrangements with its northern neighbour.
“Nine million Americans are reliant on trade with Canada, [there is] more than $2bn a day of back and forth trade and also some of the states which were supportive of the new administration around the Great Lakes region have very strong trading relationships with Canada,” he said.
He said Canada was always open to consider how to improve the trading relationship with the US, but was very supportive of Nafta. “Our view is that Nafta has had enormous advantages for the US, for Canada and for Mexico. We also recognise that the anxieties that fuelled the decision in the US are real. They’re also real in Canada.” [...]
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