There is no more productive, integrated, and beneficial bi-lateral relationship anywhere in the world than the relationship between the two northern North American neighbours. But the bond between Canada and the United States of America is not without challenges, and the recent Trump presidency brought an entrenchment of trends towards economic nationalism, protectionist trade policies, and the straining of a relationship that had already been neglected.
Examining these issues is a new report from the Public Policy Forum and Global Affairs Canada, The Dis-United States. It presents the perspectives of a roundtable of Canadian and American foreign-policy experts on where Canada’s priorities should lie in engaging with the Biden administration and American governments into the next decade.
“To manage U.S. protectionism, roundtable members said Canada needs to position its engagement with the U.S. in a manner that recognizes the domestic reality faced by Biden. This approach requires the need to identify the integrated supply chains between the two countries as shared strategic interests essential to jobs and economic growth,” they advise.
Specific recommendations for Canada include:
- Make common cause with the U.S. to better deal with China;
- Play a larger role to assert its sovereignty in the Arctic;
- Invest with the U.S. to modernize NORAD as part of defence of North America;
- Take advantage of its bounty of rare-earth elements, resources critical to the technology-driven economy;
- Harmonize Canada – U.S. climate-change and energy transition priorities and objectives;
- Broaden advocacy efforts by engaging different ethnic, racial and generational US domestic constituencies.
Read the full report here: https://ppforum.ca/publications/the-dis-united-states/?utm_source=MC&utm_medium=weekly&utm_campaign=apr22
