UK urged to ‘team up’ with EU and Canada in economic partnership

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Britain should “team up” with Canada and the EU economically, the Canadian finance minister has said, arguing closer partnerships are needed in the face of a changing global political landscape.

Francois-Philippe Champagne said the countries shared a similar “vision” of the world, arguing they are “stronger together”.

It comes after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier this month proposed Canada join the European bloc as an “associate member”.

The proposed associate status does not exist under EU treaties, with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney acknowledging its role is yet to be defined.

Calling for closer ties with Britain, alongside the EU, Mr Champagne told the BBC: “We need to look at partnership in a different way, and the great thing is that when you look at Canada, and I would say the United Kingdom, we share the same values.

“We are very aligned in our vision of the world. Why don’t we team up? We are independent and sovereign, but we are stronger together.”

Talking about Canada’s future role as an “associate member”, Mr Champagne said: “This is all about the substance, to build an alliance of the future.

“The world has changed. America has changed. So we need to change.”

Ties between traditional allies Canada and the United States have strained under Donald Trump, after the president threatened to make the country the 51st American state and imposed hefty tariffs on Canadian goods.

Canada has been seeking to diversify its economic relationships amid heightened tensions.

But announcing the planned cooperation, Ms von der Leyen was careful to state that “this is a partnership not against anyone else” in a possible effort to avoid antagonising the US president.

Mr Trump has yet to respond to the burgeoning relationship, but he has clashed with Canada and its leadership repeatedly in recent months.

Prime minister Andy Burnham is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, having spoken to each other at least twice on the phone since Mr Burnham entered Downing Street in July.

Mr Carney previously told the European Parliament he welcomed deeper ties in defence, trade, financial services, energy and artificial intelligence, but he later clarified that Canada would not be seeking full EU membership.

“We do not seek power to dominate others,” added the former Bank of England governor.

“On the contrary, we are pursuing resilience so that no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.”

In August, Mr Trump signed an order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”, claimed that Canada “is the worst to deal with on trade” and suggested the US defends its neighbour while getting nothing in return.

Mr Carney, in turn, has claimed the Trump administration is trying to “break us so America can own us” and vowed to “never forget the lessons” of what he termed the “American betrayal”. He has pledged to double Canada’s non-US trade in the next decade.