Yes. This needs to be the focus.
Canada does a lot of business with China. We sell a lot to China. Canadian manufacturers rely on a number of Chinese inputs that cannot be accessed in Canada or in the North American Market, so it is not completely one or the other. However, there are specific sectors and activities where we know China is undertaking these unfair activities. Those are where we think there's opportunity to continue to align with the U.S., in particular, and with Mexico to protect the North American market.
With that said, in fairness to Canadian negotiators and others, Canada has followed the U.S. suit, even prior to President Trump's election, with specific measures around steel and EVs. Our reward for doing so is to be punished by China and to be punished by the Americans.
An important message that Canada needs to send to our American allies is that if they want us to act in a way that is consistent with the interests of all of our shared manufacturers and their workers, they also—the Americans—need to act in a way that is consistent with those behaviours. Unfortunately, we haven't had the support or the reaction we would have liked from Americans for following suit or, in some cases, for going further on these policies.
