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Canada is open to purchasing extra US navy {hardware} and forging a deeper vital minerals alliance with its southern neighbour, the nation’s vitality minister has stated, as Ottawa lobbies to influence Donald Trump to not impose swingeing tariffs.
Jonathan Wilkinson informed the Monetary Instances that Ottawa was keen to construct nearer ties with Washington that would assist the president-elect’s priorities of strengthening America’s vitality independence and assembly the problem posed by China’s rise as an financial and navy energy.
This might embrace buying submarines and different navy gear and growing extra vital mineral initiatives in Canada that will displace Chinese language merchandise from US provide chains, he stated.
“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,” stated 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 stated retaliatory tariffs would deal with merchandise that will 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 stated such an end result would undermine mutual belief and known as the combat over tariffs a “distraction” from extra urgent points.
“The challenge that we face internationally right now, it’s not Canada-US, it’s China,” stated Wilkinson. “It has strategic control of a number of different assets, and particularly true of critical minerals.”
He known 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 many 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, business 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 deal with unlawful migration and drug trafficking.
The US and Canadian economies are deeply intertwined. Canada’s oil business 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 stated US tariffs on Canadian imports would damage US customers in addition to Canadians, pushing up the value of gasoline and different very important items. “Where are they going to get potash? Where are they going to get uranium?” he stated. “Where are they going to get critical minerals? Are they really going to turn to China?”
Final week, Trump instructed he might use “economic force” to annex Canada, saying it could be “much better for national security”.
Wilkinson stated Canadians had been agitated by the remark, including that Canada “would not become a 51st state”.
“We are a sovereign nation,” he stated. “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.”
