The writer is president and CEO of Business Council of Canada
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney had a lot to think about on his long flight from Ottawa to Kuala Lumpur. That’s because a few hours before he left for the Asean summit, US President Donald Trump announced he was terminating negotiations with Canada, because of an anti-tariff advertising campaign undertaken by one of the American neighbour’s provincial governments.
Carney’s visit to Asia, his first since taking office earlier this year, had been expected to be his most important business trip to date. Before Trump’s suspension of negotiations and subsequent tariff increase on Canada, Carney’s reported goal was to return home with both a sectoral tariff deal with Trump and stronger commercial relations with, in his words, “the economic giants of Asia”. That job just got much harder.