Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. G twenty finance ministers
Speaker 1: are currently meeting in South Africa, and last hour, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: correspondent Oliver Crook spoke with Canada's finance minister about the
Speaker 1: ongoing trade discussions. Take a listen.
Speaker 2: First of all, I'll speak as the chair of the
Speaker 2: G seven.
Speaker 3: You know, we hosted colleagues in BAMFA recently in Canada.
Speaker 3: The mission was storing it back to basis, you know,
Speaker 3: to look at you know, how we're going stability and growth.
Speaker 3: What I've said this morning in a number of plenary
Speaker 3: was we cannot allow uncertainty to become the new certainty.
Speaker 3: You know, we need to restore our consumer confidence, we
Speaker 3: need to restore business confidence, we need to restore investor confidence.
Speaker 3: And it's incumbent upon obviously the G seven countries will
Speaker 3: have a meeting, a virtual meeting tomorrow. It's also incumbent
Speaker 3: upon the G twenty to adopt policies and to deal
Speaker 3: with the issues we're facing together so that we bring
Speaker 3: back that level of certainty that is so much needed.
Speaker 3: You know, I always say stability predictive me in the
Speaker 3: rule of liszt an eye the men and short supply,
Speaker 3: and therefore for us and what you feel, you know,
Speaker 3: sadly in the way, it seems that you know, you
Speaker 3: are in a place where you kind of normalize trade
Speaker 3: restriction and some level of tariffs, and obviously this has
Speaker 3: created a number of tensions, and therefore we seem to
Speaker 3: be in the world where you know, this is becoming
Speaker 3: more the norm in terms of some some trade restriction
Speaker 3: and some teriffs you know, imposed on different countries.
Speaker 1: And in terms of the conversations that you're having with
Speaker 1: the Trump administration more specific because the Europeans have basically
Speaker 1: come to terms with the idea that they're not going
Speaker 1: to get zero for zero, would you consider that zero
Speaker 1: for zero as an ambition is dead? From Knad's point.
Speaker 3: Of well, would say the Prime minister has been Prime
Speaker 3: Minister of Canada has been, you know, speaking on that
Speaker 3: he said, and I support that he said.
Speaker 2: There there's a lot of evidence to suggest.
Speaker 3: That, you know, you you can have a trade deal
Speaker 3: with the United States without tariffs. I mean, there's no
Speaker 3: evidence to suggest that when you look at the world today.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: It seems that seemingly what you've seen time and time
Speaker 3: again that you know, there's some level of trade restriction
Speaker 3: and some level of terrorists that have been imposed.
Speaker 2: So where do you think, pretty much all countries.
Speaker 1: Where do you think that baseline is going to be
Speaker 1: for Canada And at what baseline does does Canada then
Speaker 1: have to retaliate?
Speaker 3: Well, listen, we said a number of things to our
Speaker 3: American friends. First of all, we want to work together,
Speaker 3: so obviously we're going to continue, We're going to double
Speaker 3: down on our negotiation. You know, Canada is an important
Speaker 3: partner for the United States. I remind our American friends
Speaker 3: always that we are the largest customer in the United States.
Speaker 2: We buy more from the US than.
Speaker 3: China, Japan, the UK and friends combined. We are the
Speaker 3: second largest investor in.
Speaker 2: The United States.
Speaker 3: And also the distinction between Canada others is the nature
Speaker 3: the integrated nature of our supply chain. So a decision
Speaker 3: on one side of the border as an impact on
Speaker 3: both sides. Just the nature of things. So we're gonna
Speaker 3: double down in our effort to negotiate the best possible
Speaker 3: deal for Canada and Canadian workers. At the same time,
Speaker 3: we're certainly gonna make sure we have measures to protect
Speaker 3: our industry and our workers and we're gonna build Canada.
Speaker 3: You know, the Prime Minister is being quoted as saying,
Speaker 3: you know, we can give ourselves far more than anyone
Speaker 3: can take away from us. And that's why you've seen
Speaker 3: that kind of sentiment Canada to build.
Speaker 2: More infrastructure, to diversify.
Speaker 3: The market, because you know, Canada is a large G
Speaker 3: seven country. You know, we're the only G seven country
Speaker 3: with the free trade agreement with all other G seven nations,
Speaker 3: So in a sense, we are in a great position
Speaker 3: to diversify. If you look at the pillar of growth,
Speaker 3: Canada offers a number of opportunities and it's it's obvious
Speaker 3: when you talk to colleagues zero, the G twenty.
Speaker 1: And every sort of negotiation, there's a stick in a
Speaker 1: carrot side of the negotiation. Are on the carrot side
Speaker 1: of things, are you willing to talk about their duties
Speaker 1: or is that a redline for Canada? And on the
Speaker 1: stick side, the digital taxes come back. Digital services taxes
Speaker 1: come back if you fail to get a deal.
Speaker 3: Well, we've been clear from the get go that the
Speaker 3: issue around supply management is off the table. So that's
Speaker 3: step one when it comes to the digital service tax.
Speaker 3: We have made our position clear. We have heard from
Speaker 3: the President. We always anticipated that be part of a
Speaker 3: larger discussion, but I would say in the same time
Speaker 3: in that week we probably talked less about that. But
Speaker 3: the fact that the G seven issue is statement on
Speaker 3: section eight ninety nine and finding a compromise position where
Speaker 3: we'll have a dual system. I think this is a
Speaker 3: great achievement. You know, for me, my job as the
Speaker 3: chair of the G seven is to maintain unity in
Speaker 3: the G seven but also to fund common ground.
Speaker 2: I mean, this was a place where we could find
Speaker 2: common ground.
Speaker 3: And I hope, you know tomorrow will have a discussion
Speaker 3: with the G seven colleagues. And certainly I always say
Speaker 3: all the answers are around the table, you know, if
Speaker 3: you talk about energy, natural resources, critical minerals. So we
Speaker 3: should be addressing the big issues, which is over capacity,
Speaker 3: non market practices. That's really what's hurting our domestic economy.
Speaker 3: And we're best place to address these issues together.
Speaker 1: And you say that the solutions are always at the table,
Speaker 1: but not everybody is always at the table. For example,
Speaker 1: Scott Besson is absent from this meeting. Donald Trump left
Speaker 1: the meeting in Canada a little bit early I'd like
Speaker 1: to have your understanding in terms of negotiating with a
Speaker 1: larger block, say than Canada is the EU. Do you
Speaker 1: think they will reach a position where it would make
Speaker 1: sense for Canada to band up with other like countries
Speaker 1: the EU, Canada, South Korea, Japan. Is that a conversation
Speaker 1: that you're having you had that meeting a little bit
Speaker 1: earlier today.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, first of all, when I have a
Speaker 3: virtual meeting with Secretary best Send tomorrow, I understand he's traveling,
Speaker 3: so we're going to be making sure we can be
Speaker 3: connecting together. And the other thing today what I think
Speaker 3: resonated the most, and I started with that in our interview,
Speaker 3: is that we cannot let uncertainty become the new certainty.
Speaker 3: I think that is probably the word that you've heard
Speaker 3: the most in the sessions today was the word uncertainty.
Speaker 3: So I said, it's incumbent upon us to make sure
Speaker 3: that you know uncertainty is not the new certainty in
Speaker 3: the world that you know. Seemingly it seems to suggest
Speaker 3: and what we've seen that you know there'll be trade
Speaker 3: restrictions will be in a world of trade restrictions, they'll
Speaker 3: be in the world also of tariffs, but we need
Speaker 3: to find ways to work together to address this issue,
Speaker 3: these issues which are all related. Sooner would be the
Speaker 3: better because what we need to provide back to the
Speaker 3: market is that level of confidence so that investors, consumer
Speaker 3: and businesses can start investing again.
Speaker 2: And you know that we find a way forward.
Speaker 3: So that is the issue we've been tackling today, and
Speaker 3: that's the uncertainty we're going to be talking tomorrow. Resiliency
Speaker 3: of supply chain. Making sure we work together because what
Speaker 3: we need also to address is vulnerabilities, and that is
Speaker 3: very clear when you look at supply chains and how
Speaker 3: we can address these vulnerabilities.
Speaker 1: And then the question also in Ukraine. You just came
Speaker 1: from the recovery conference in Rome, so you met with
Speaker 1: a number of the Ukrainian delegation and others in European ones.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump now says he's willing to send sell more
Speaker 1: arms to the Ukrainians if NATO the Europeans pay for it.
Speaker 1: Which would Canada join into that program to buy more
Speaker 1: arms for you.
Speaker 2: We've been there to the beginning.
Speaker 3: You know, Canada invested close to twenty two billion Canadian
Speaker 3: dollar to support Ukraine. The thing that we have said
Speaker 3: also very significantly at the G seven. You may recall
Speaker 3: when we are at the meeting in Banff, thanks to
Speaker 3: the work that we've done with Secretary Bess and we
Speaker 3: said very clearly that anyone who supported Russia and its
Speaker 3: unjustified work against Ukraine cannot benefit directly and directly from
Speaker 3: the reconstruction.
Speaker 2: This is a baseline. G seven was very clear on that.
Speaker 3: This is something that was reaffirmed also at the reconstruction
Speaker 3: conference in and certainly just on the reconstruction, they'll come
Speaker 3: to the arms.
Speaker 2: But just think about that.
Speaker 3: People were saying, this is kind of the Marshall Plan
Speaker 3: for the twenty first century, because if you look at
Speaker 3: the IMF figure to reconstruct Ukraine, you're talking of nord
Speaker 3: of five hundred twenty five billion US daughter about for
Speaker 3: about a decade. So certainly there's a lot to be done.
Speaker 3: Canada has made its last installment on the alone acceleration
Speaker 3: of five billion, so when it comes to how we
Speaker 3: can support further Ukraine, Canada has always been at the table.
Speaker 3: So we'll certainly look at the proposal that is being
Speaker 3: put on the table.