LILLEY: Mark Carney heads to New York while continuing to avoid Donald Trump
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While Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to New York to pitch Canada as a place to invest, he’s doing everything he can to avoid landing a deal with the Donald Trump administration. Carney and his government in Ottawa are avoiding any serious talks with the Americans, while also taking steps to ensure the Trump administration, and even many Democrats, are annoyed with Canada’s trading positions.
Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced its decision that American streamers need to hand over 15% of their Canadian revenues to fund Canadian TV and movie content. This move, made possible by the Online Streaming Act, was opposed by the Joe Biden administration as far back as 2023.
This is an issue that will unite both parties against Canada when it comes to trade. With moves like this, we are annoying friends and neighbours who invest money here and who advocate for increased trade with Canada.
Horrible policy for Canada, our trading partners
There are so many issues with this policy, including the timing, but also how it is rolled out. The wildly popular show The Handmaid’s Tale is based on a book by Canadian author Margaret Atwood; it was filmed in Toronto, hired Canadian crews and injected millions into the local economy, yet it doesn’t count as Canadian content.
It’s like when a Bryan Adams album was determined not to be Canadian on similarly ridiculous grounds.
Still on the tech front, the Carney government is pushing forward with Bill C-22, Canada’s attempt at what is called lawful access. The aim is to ensure that police services have faster access to online records and data, an important move at a time when there is increasing crime committed or facilitated online.
However, there is a feeling, especially among the biggest tech companies in the world, that user privacy and data will be compromised if this bill is passed as written. All of the big tech companies, including Google, Meta, Apple and more, have said the law would require them to create backdoor surveillance structures that would be vulnerable to attacks that could compromise data.
“Creating new surveillance infrastructure would give rise to additional security vulnerabilities for users, would undermine user trust and would pose potential conflict of laws issues,” Google told the House of Commons this week.
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Americans appear to be fed up with Carney
This is another piece of legislation that has caught the attention of Americans. It doesn’t mean we can’t pass it; it does mean that unless we have changes to the legislation, there could be consequences that hurt Canadians in terms of services offered, but also in terms of our future trade negotiations.
On Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Trump’s lead trade negotiator, was at an event in Washington sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations when he was asked about the rupture with Canada.
“Well, I would say that, you know, the team right now is in Mexico , my team, and they’re negotiating with Mexico on a bilateral basis,” Greer said.
Greer expressed frustration with Canada, saying that we have made some odd choices and that “it’s hard to see necessarily where that ends.”
PM playing a dangerous game
For people cheering on a rupture in relations with the U.S., these are great words to hear. For anyone whose job relies on trade with the U.S., this should cause anxiety.
The Carney government isn’t even coming to the table with the Americans and yet we are in the middle of advanced and accelerated trade talks happening in Toronto this week with Mercosur. That would be the South American trading bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia.
It’s a deal that has Canada’s beef farmers worried, but it’s also a deal that the Carney government wants to have wrapped up soon — before mid-June is what I am hearing.
What does it say when we won’t engage with the Americans on a review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade with a July 1 deadline looming, but have ramped up talks with South American nations. Carney is playing a dangerous game and your job or the job of one of your loved ones is on the line.