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