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Canada is open to purchasing extra US army {hardware} and forging a deeper vital minerals alliance with its southern neighbour, the nation’s vitality minister has mentioned, as Ottawa lobbies to influence Donald Trump to not impose swingeing tariffs.
Jonathan Wilkinson informed the Monetary Occasions that Ottawa was keen to construct nearer ties with Washington that might help the president-elect’s priorities of strengthening America’s vitality independence and assembly the problem posed by China’s rise as an financial and army energy.
This might embrace buying submarines and different army gear and creating extra vital mineral initiatives in Canada that may displace Chinese language merchandise from US provide chains, he mentioned.
“There are opportunities for us to procure a lot of the go-forward military equipment, like the submarines from the United States. And certainly, we are open to that as part of the broader conversation,” mentioned Wilkinson throughout an interview in Washington.
However he warned Ottawa would reply with “tit-for-tat” measures if Trump, who will probably be sworn in as US president on Monday, imposed a threatened 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports into the US.
Wilkinson mentioned retaliatory tariffs would give attention to merchandise that may create “the greatest amount of angst in the United States with the least amount of pain in Canada”, doubtlessly metal from Michigan or orange juice from Florida.
However he mentioned such an consequence would undermine mutual belief and referred to as the struggle over tariffs a “distraction” from extra urgent points.
“The challenge that we face internationally right now, it’s not Canada-US, it’s China,” mentioned Wilkinson. “It has strategic control of a number of different assets, and particularly true of critical minerals.”
He referred to as for the North American allies to “build an energy and minerals security partnership or alliance that actually enables us to both contribute to common outcomes”.
Final month, Beijing banned the export of a number of uncommon earths to the US in an escalation of a expertise struggle. China controls a lot of the provide chain for uncommon earths, that are vital inputs for superior clear vitality and defence applied sciences.
Wilkinson’s go to to Washington — the place he’s assembly Republican politicians, trade representatives and different stakeholders — is a part of an more and more frantic lobbying effort by Ottawa aimed toward persuading the US president-elect to withstand imposing tariffs on Canada, which economists have warned would tip the nation’s economic system into recession.
In November, Trump proposed the 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Mexico and Canada, accusing the US’s closest neighbours of failing to sort out unlawful migration and drug trafficking.
The US and Canadian economies are deeply intertwined. Canada’s oil trade provides greater than half of US crude imports, and Washington has invested tens of million of {dollars} in Canadian vital mineral initiatives in a bid to scale back reliance on Chinese language imports.
Wilkinson mentioned US tariffs on Canadian imports would harm US shoppers in addition to Canadians, pushing up the value of fuel and different very important items. “Where are they going to get potash? Where are they going to get uranium?” he mentioned. “Where are they going to get critical minerals? Are they really going to turn to China?”
Final week, Trump urged he might use “economic force” to annex Canada, saying it could be “much better for national security”.
Wilkinson mentioned Canadians have been agitated by the remark, including that Canada “would not become a 51st state”.
“We are a sovereign nation,” he mentioned. “Our national game is hockey, it’s not football or baseball. We go to Tim Hortons, we don’t go to Dunkin’ Donuts, and we have two languages, they are English and French . . . Canadians have no interest in being Americans.”
