Politics1 min read

Canada PM Carney touts Philippine trade deal on Asia tour

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the conclusion of free-trade negotiations with the Philippines, with formal signing expected in roughly six months. The pact will remove over 90 percent of tariffs across critical sectors like artificial intelligence, aerospace, and agriculture to triple trade over the next decade. Concurrently, Canada has substantially finished talks on a broader regional agreement with the 11-member ASEAN bloc, which currently accounts for over US$50 billion in annual trade. Carney will continue his diplomatic tour with visits to Cambodia and China, where he is scheduled to meet with Xi Jinping.

Key points

  • Canada is actively diversifying its export markets to reduce economic exposure to US tari…: Canada is actively diversifying its export markets to reduce economic exposure to US tariffs and trade disputes.
  • A substantially concluded pact with the 11-member ASEAN bloc would mark the association's…: A substantially concluded pact with the 11-member ASEAN bloc would mark the association's first trade deal outside of Asia.
  • Canadian leadership views trade ties with the United States as permanently altered, reinf…: Canadian leadership views trade ties with the United States as permanently altered, reinforcing the urgency of Indo-Pacific partnerships.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

The deal will drop over 90 per cent of tariff lines and cover areas ranging from agriculture to aerospace to artificial intelligence, and is about six months away from being signed, says Canada's prime minister.

MANILA: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday (Nov 14) that Ottawa had successfully concluded negotiations for a sweeping free-trade pact with the Philippines, as it seeks ways to reduce its reliance on the United States.

The US-Canada trade war has ruptured what was once one of the world's closest economic partnerships.

While Canada's trade surplus edged up in September, driven by higher oil exports, US President Donald Trump's tariffs also pinched multiple sectors, data showed.

The deal with the Philippines was about six months away from being signed, Carney told reporters on the sidelines of a regional summit in Manila, where Trump is expected to arrive Tuesday.

He added a broader agreement was also in the works with the entirety of the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with those talks "substantially concluded".

The pacts were "part of a strategy of developing a…

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