Canada’s visiting trade minister said Australia and Canada should forcefully argue the case for free trade as Donald Trump upends the global trading system.
Canada’s visiting trade minister said Australia and Canada should forcefully argue the case for free trade as Donald Trump upends the global trading system.
By Matthew Knott
Updated February 17, 2025 — 3.21pmfirst published at 2.55pm
Middle powers such as Australia and Canada should forcefully argue the case for free trade and counter misleading economic claims from the White House as US President Donald Trump proposes sweeping tariffs on foreign goods, Canada’s trade minister has argued.
Trump announced, then quickly suspended, an across-the-board 25 per cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports soon after returning to the presidency, but remains notably hostile towards the US’s northern neighbour and NATO treaty ally.
Trump said Canada had been “very bad to us on trade” and vowed the nation was “going to have to start paying up” as he announced tariffs on steel and aluminium imports last week.
Mary Ng, who has been Canada’s international trade minister since 2019, said Canada and Australia had both benefited from a global trading system that dismantled tariffs, prized stability and encouraged businesses to expand into foreign markets.
“We should continue to promote open trade, we should continue to promote free trade,” she said in an interview during her first visit to Australia.
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“We should continue to do that under a system that is underpinned by a rules-based order.”
Ng met with Trade Minister Don Farrell at his winery estate in South Australia over the weekend and is leading a major delegation of 140 Canadian companies in a bid to deepen the Australia-Canada trade relationship.
She said the volatility of the Trump administration’s trade policies had accelerated an existing Canadian push to become less dependent on the US, including by diversifying into markets in the Indo-Pacific.
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Ng said the Trudeau government was “going to work very hard” to convince the Trump administration that establishing new tariffs was bad economic policy and would harm American consumers.
“The reality of it is that a 25 per cent tariff on Canada is going to make life more expensive for Americans at the [petrol] pump, in their grocery stores,” she said.
“The point is that if you’re going to add a tariff, then that just simply makes your input a lot more expensive.”
Ng said the Trudeau government had been “very clear” that it will respond with retaliatory tariffs on American imports if Trump follows through on his tariff threat.
“We will not initiate,” she said. “It is our preference to not be here, but, but we will be ready to respond, and to respond strongly.”
Ng said that Trump’s steel and aluminium tariff proposal was “not a good idea”, going further in her criticism than Albanese government ministers who have argued narrowly for an Australia-specific exemption to any US tariffs.
Pushing back on claims that Canada was ripping off the US off on trade, Ng pointed out that Trump had negotiated the current free trade pact between Canada, the US and Mexico in 2020 and had touted it as an excellent agreement.
Arguing bluntly that “trade agreements need to be honoured”, she said: “The trading relationship Canada has with the United States is really the envy of the world.”
Asked whether Canada would be able to stave off Trump’s tariffs, she said: “We have a good case and we intend to do that work”.
“I think are our best approach is to share the facts,” she said.
“Canada is the largest customer to 36 US states. I keep telling [Trump administration officials], ‘Look, I buy more from you than Japan, China, UK, France combined’. That is the size of this trading relationship.”
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This masthead reported on Monday that the Albanese government had shelved plans to penalise digital platforms if they refuse to pay local media outlets for news articles in a bid to avoid retaliation from the Trump administration.
Canada passed similar legislation requiring social media platforms to fairly compensate news outlets for using their content in 2023 and last year passed a digital services tax that requires large tech companies to pay tax on revenues earned through engaging online users in Canada.
Ng said: “Canada made a commitment on tax fairness … so everyone will pay their fair share, including the large technology companies.”
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via Twitter or Facebook.
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