CP NewsAlert: Harper says 'no choice' but to walk away from U.S. trade talks

While delivering closing remarks at Canada's first-ever national investment summit today, Harper said the move was 'sad' but necessary and that Canada needs to reduce its reliance on the United States. TORONTO — Former prime minister Stephen Harper says the federal government had “no choice” but to walk away from trade talks with the United States. Delivering closing remarks at Canada’s first-ever national investment summit Tuesday, Harper said the move was necessary and that Canada needs to reduce its reliance on the United States.

administration views our level of economic integration as incompatible with our separate sovereignty. Thus, to maintain that sovereignty, we must pursue diminished reliance upon the United States,” he said. “There will be significant costs to this effort, but those are costs that I hope and believe Canadians are able and prepared to accept.” Harper said he sees the breakdown in trade talks as “sad” but necessary.

“I believe that in this necessity, our country will also discover and is discovering opportunity,” he said. A last-ditch effort to reach a new trade deal with the United States collapsed in August. After Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended the talks and summoned his negotiators back to Ottawa, he accused the Americans of introducing unacceptable demands at the last minute.

That decision led to new 50 per cent U.S. tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian exports. Ottawa has replied with retaliatory tariffs on American products.

Hundreds of executives and global asset managers were in Toronto for this week’s investment summit — part of the Carney government’s efforts to hit an ambitious goal of attracting $1 trillion in new investment over the next five years. President Donald Trump’s administration hollow out its industrial capacity. He said Canada has come “nowhere close” to realizing its true potential and its natural resources are its “special comparative advantage.” “Canada cannot simply blame external factors or make other excuses to explain away the difficulties that we face,” he said.

“Today, more than ever, Canada must become more internally competitive, more externally connected and more truly sovereign than it has been.” In his speech, Harper congratulated the federal government on the measures it has taken to fast-track major project approvals, especially for projects in the energy sector. “These changes are welcome and they are very important. However, more does need to be done,” he said.