Canada-Europe Trade and Cooperation Discussion

Uh, getting closer to Europe when we still haven't ratif-

or not all the member

states have ratified a trade deal, for example.

Yes, that's true. Not all, and I would like to use this opportunity-

...

to encourage them to do so. Uh, it's, uh...

Look, there's, there's several things.

One, if you look at our relationship, uh, yes, we have CETA, which is the trade

deal, which is de facto in operation.

Even in those jurisdictions where they're not ratified, you have 90,

95% of trade, uh, work operating, uh, tariff free.

So in effect, it's de facto, but it'd be better if it were de jure,

without question. Um, we have deepened our partnership,

for example,

through SAFE. We're the only non-European member of this

defense procurement,

uh, arrangement in Europe. We see, and we talked earlier around,

um,

I'll call it strategic capabilities, uh, everything from space, critical

minerals, clean energy. Um, we see opportunities to deepen our

cooperation with Europe, particularly in those areas, as well as

people-to-people ties, research ties, and of course, the defense industrial.

So there's, there's many areas where, in a form of,

um, deeper partnership, a form of alliance, we can,

we can drill down and,

and have better outcomes for Europeans and Canadians.

Is it, is it fair to sort of view that alliance as an anti-US stance?

No. No. I... We are very much... And, and this is a key

thing about this government.

We are about what we're for, not what we're against.

Uh, we are not doing anything that in, in, um, uh...

So when we look at major projects in Canada, the question is what are

Canadians for? What do we wanna build?

What Canadians want, uh, amongst other things, is clean energy.

They wanna build, they wanna take advantage of all our clean

energy, double the scale of that in an affordable way, so we're

doubling down on that strategy. Uh, with respect to Europe, it is a

positive, uh, initiative because it's good

for Europe, it's good for Canada. It will make us more sovereign,

make us more

resilient, more independent, uh, as well as more prosperous.

Uh, it's not a reaction in any way, shape, or form, uh, to what's going

on in the US.