Carney calls for new partnership with US as Trump mulls whether to renew free trade agreement

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called for a new partnership with the United States on Thursday, just weeks before President Donald Trump decides on whether to renew the free trade agreement between the countries.

Carney said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York that there should be a “true partnership” that re-imagines cooperation in specific sectors challenged by global competition.

He made the remarks ahead of the mandatory review of United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, in July.

Carney said Canada is diversifying away from the U.S. and signing trade deals with dozens of countries around the world.

“Our core objective across these partnerships is to increase our strategic autonomy. Because we live in a world where integration has been weaponised. Because a country that cannot feed, fuel or defend itself is not truly sovereign,” Carney said.

Trump’s actions — including launching a trade war and suggesting Canada become the 51st U.S. state — have infuriated Canadians and created the political environment for Carney to win the job of prime minister after promising to confront Trump.

The Canadian prime minister has emerged as a spokesman for a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the U.S. under Trump. Carney has set a goal for Canada to double its non-U.S. exports in the next decade, saying American tariffs are causing a chill in investment.

“Canada Strong will help make America great again. The examples are legion where we should work together and compete with the world together. And to those ends, we have made specific, practical proposals to the US Administration,” Carney said.

Canada has been protected by the heaviest impact of Trump’s tariffs by the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement but that trade agreement is up for a review and certain key sectors like aluminum and steel have been hit hard by tariffs.

The prime minister noted Canadian aluminum exports to the U.S. are the energy equivalent of 10 Hoover dams and that it doesn’t make sense to replace Canada.

“With America’s growing energy needs, does it make sense to build the Gigawatts needed to replace Canada?” Carney said.

He also noted that on automobiles, Canada is America’s biggest customer, and “an integrated North American market for production is the best and most durable way to confront intense global competition.”

Carney also said on critical minerals, with its vast reserves of potash, nickel, copper and uranium, Canada can be the most reliable supplier that America needs to put affordable food on the table, to strengthen its national defence and meet exploding demand to power AI.

“At a time of a global energy crisis, Canada provides the United States with the reliable power and critical minerals that help fuel American growth: 99% of U.S. natural gas imports, 85% of electricity imports and 60% of crude oil imports,” Carney said.

Carney said Canada is America’s largest customer, buying more goods than China, Japan and the Germany combined.

“We know that, when Canada and the United States have had our differences over the years, we have always — eventually — worked through them, because our shared values and common interests run deep. They run through our economies,” he said.

Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister for U.S. trade, is heading to Washington next week for talks. LeBlanc has previously warned that the free trade agreement could be subject to annual review and that uncertainty could be the objective of the Trump administration.