Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Friday that the three members of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement think there is an opportunity for them “to work together to have a fully aligned policy on China”.
Apparently this policy is to “protect all of our workers and to ensure that we are supporting each other in this really important effort”.
According to the official website of the US Trade Representative, the USMCA that came into effect in 2020 to replace the 25-year-old North America Free Trade Agreement is intended to support mutually beneficial trade leading to freer markets, fairer trade, and robust economic growth in North America.
However, as early as 2020 when it was freshly signed, the USMCA was generally believed to show a strong protectionist tendency that restricted trade and investment both within the region and beyond.
The fact is that the agreement fails to solve the trade problems and disparities between the United States and its two neighbors, and Freeland’s words are in fact a response to the US waving its club of protectionism at its two neighbors, rather than anything China has done.
Freeland’s remarks show that she wants to divert the next US administration’s attention from Canada to China.
China was reportedly among the topics of the meeting between the US president-elect and the visiting Canadian prime minister in the host’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday.
The foreign ministers of China and Canada have met three times this year, in Munich, Beijing and Lima respectively, and have maintained close communication via other channels. In all these exchanges the Canadian side has clearly expressed its commitment to promoting bilateral relations.
In other words, Canada is trying to please a power that waves a protectionist club against it while hurting a nation that has interacted with it frequently to improve the bilateral relationship.
Unwise is the politest way to describe its approach.