With the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, Canada’s privileged access to the world’s largest market is at risk. Canada needs a proactive U.S. strategy—and a global one—to minimize the threat and perhaps even turn it into an economic opportunity.
During his presidential campaign Trump pledged to renegotiate or withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and to exclude foreign suppliers from new infrastructure spending, among many other anti-trade measures. With 70 per cent of Canadian exports destined for the United States, U.S. protectionism is especially problematic for Canada. These types of measures could hurt Canada’s sales to its most important export market badly and hit overall economic growth hard. If president Trump imposes tariffs on goods from China and Mexico, this could turn into an all-out trade war, threatening regional and global economic stability, in which Canada also has a strong stake.
To view the full article, written by Danielle Goldfarb, director of the Global Commerce Centre at the Conference Board of Canada, please visit Maclean’s website here.