Canada will seek to ease US trade frictions after midterms, Anand says

What Anand said and why now

Anita Anand told Bloomberg Television that Ottawa intends to lower trade tensions with Washington following the US midterms, which she described as a rebuke of Donald Trump by tariff-weary voters. "We're talking about just a week or so out of these elections, and Canada very much hopes that we will have progress on the trade front," she said.

She said US measures have bitten hard at home, naming duties on lumber, steel, aluminum and automobiles. Her warning was blunt: "These sectors are being hit very hard in Canada with workers losing their jobs." She added that a shifting political mood in the US has opened a window for detente.

Moves Canada has already made

Anand said the tariff pressure pushed Canada both to retaliate and to expand its commercial options. Over the past year, she noted, Canada has completed more than 20 agreements across security, the economy and defense, and is now the only G7 country with a free trade agreement with every other member of the group.

She tied those deals to a bigger target: "This is the work that we are doing to double non-US trade over the next 10 years," she said.

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Global talks and specific partnerships

Anand was in Paris for a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers that included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. She was in the United Arab Emirates recently, as Russian and Ukrainian officials convene there this week to address Moscow's ongoing war. According to her, the agenda centers on prospective security assurances for Kyiv, with attention to energy infrastructure and to agricultural goods departing Ukrainian ports.

She added that Canada intends to conclude a 100-year pact with Ukraine this year, concentrating on drone production and troop training.

Why it matters for your portfolio

According to Anand, Canada and the European Union are ramping up cooperation spanning cloud computing, technology, artificial intelligence, energy and critical minerals. The bottom line: seeking detente with the US while deepening ties elsewhere could redirect flows in metals, manufacturing and defense supply chains, and reset where capital and policy support land across those strategic sectors.

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