Canada Seeks New Partnership  05/29 06:27

   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.

   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 weaponized. 
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 
defense 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.

   "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.

   Carney also met with representatives of BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase, 
Blackstone, Morgan Stanley and Apollo while in New York.

   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.