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AMID US president Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Sigmar Gabriel, former German vice chancellor and foreign minister, made a curious suggestion in an interview with German media outlet The Pioneer: invite Canada into the European Union. Soon after, Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, addressed Canada on X to say that “[t]here is no reason why EU membership should be off the table.” The thought of this North Atlantic alliance excited some Canadians and Europeans—one YouTube video even theorized how “CANEU” (read: canoe) would be a “global superpower.”
To learn more about what the possibilities are for Canada and the EU, I spoke with Mark Camilleri, president and CEO of the Canada EU Trade and Investment Association—CEUTIA—based in Brussels.
“In terms of trade, what similarities do Canada and the EU share?”
There’s a lot of complementarities when you go across sectors. Take mining, for example. Canada has an abundance of natural resources that the EU doesn’t have, but Europe creates and makes a lot of industrial equipment that helps extract those resources. Europe has a certain need for these resources as part of their own economic security.
If you take a look at the fertilizer that Canada produces, Europe needs it to support their agricultural sector. Another example is nuclear energy. Nuclear is going through a renaissance at the moment, and Canada can basically cover the full supply chain from mining uranium to building nuclear reactors.
It’s not ignorance and hate.
Russia is a hostile nation that we have sanctioned. Why would we trade anything with them?
Chima would be like trading with a worse and more imposing US if we even approached the same sort of trade deal.
Why not the EU, other asian countries, African or South American countries?
You don’t seem to talk about them.
We could get parts fro EU companies and assemble here in Canada, if that’s the route you want.
Just because we want to separate from the US more doesn’t mean we should open our doors to those two countries. Fuck sakes, there are better options than trading a shit sandwich for another shit dish.
trade with everyone is all I’m saying. Including US but breaking their colonial relationship to us. Russia never made hostilities to Canada.
Dude, we have SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA AND COMPANIES WITHIN RUSSIA.
Just because we haven’t shot at each other doesn’t mean they aren’t hostile.
It’s suspicious that I had to drag out a nonspecific concession that only metions Russia.