OTTAWA — U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Cohen is warning that Canada should be “quite cautious” about declaring any items off limits when it comes to future trade negotiations as the two countries brace for a second Donald Trump presidency.
Cohen’s comments were part of a pre-election interview on Tuesday and were made before a Senate committee tasked with studying a private member’s bill from the Bloc Québécois, seeking to protect supply-managed sectors from future talks, passed an amendment to blunt its effect out of concern for its impact on trade negotiations.
Trump swept to victory in Tuesday’s election and will be inaugurated in January 2025.
The first Trump presidency sparked a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and years of fractious disputes about tariffs, asylum seekers and defence spending. This time, Trump has also promised a 10 per cent global tariffs on imports to the U.S.
“I think it’s appropriate for Canada to be quite cautious in drawing lines in the sand of saying, ‘Well, we’re not going to talk about ‘x’, we’re not going to talk about ‘y,’” Cohen said, when asked how the bill’s passage would be perceived.
“Because if it is something that is important to the United States and Canada is putting itself in a position to not talk about it, I think it would be safe to say that that would not be received well.”
The renegotiated free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico is set to undergo its first review in 2026.
The private member’s bill from the Bloc earned support from the governing Liberals in the House of Commons last year, as it did from the NDP and the Greens. Conservative MPs were split on the proposal.
As proposed, the bill seeks to amend the law to prevent the supply-managed sectors of eggs, poultry and dairy products from being subject to international trade concessions, offering them further protections.
On Wednesday, the Senate committee on foreign affairs amended the bill so that it would not apply to existing agreements, deals that were being renegotiated or ones currently under negotiation. All senators must now debate the amended bill before it returns to the House.
“We passed the bill with an amendment that I continue to believe really denudes the bill of so much practical impact,” said Sen. Marc Gold, the government’s representative in the upper chamber, who opposed it. Before the vote, he said the change “would fundamentally negate” its intention to better protect supply management, rendering it “useless.”
“Canada has 37 free trade agreements that are either in force, in negotiation or in exploratory discussions. These cover practically the entire economy. To amend this bill as proposed would make this bill have no real material impact.”
He added it was also unlikely Canada would be entering into any new agreements with countries interested in its supply-managed sectors.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet had made passing the bill one of the conditions for continuing to support the Liberals in the minority Parliament, but with that deadline now passed, Blanchet has said he is prepared to work with other parties to try to bring down the government.
International Trade Minister Mary Ng had asked the Senate to hurry up with its study of the bill, with Sen. Peter Boehm, who chairs the committee tasked with studying the bill, responding by saying the upper chamber will conduct its work at its own pace.
Boehm, a former diplomat who has held several senior foreign affairs positions, had expressed concerns with the bill, saying he does not believe it would be in Canada’s “national interest” to pass it, given how it could impact future trade talks and sow division within Canada’s agriculture sector, between those protected under supply management and those that are not.
Other senators had expressed similar concerns and cattle producers have been among the worried groups. The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance has cautioned that the bill would hurt around 90 per cent of farmers who depend on trade, saying it seeks to prioritize the economic interests of one sector at the expense of another.
On Tuesday, Cohen said he wouldn’t comment on specifics as the bill has not yet passed.
However, he said the roughly $3.4-billion worth of trade that flows between the U.S. and Canada daily was built through thoughtful discussion, not by one side shutting doors.
“If it’s important enough to the United States, then the United States is left with no option,” Cohen said.
“Instead of negotiating and working through issues or problems that we might have, we have to adopt a more contentious position and that is not the way in which we have built this massive and consequential $3.4 billion-dollar-a-day trade relationship … if one side says, ‘we’re not going to talk about ‘x’, that’s completely inconsistent.”
National Post
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