Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson travelled to Washington this week to pitch a “U.S.-Canada alliance on energy and minerals” to Republicans “rather than go down a path that will inevitably be lose-lose.”
“As a sovereign democratic nation that must protect its own national interests, the unwarranted imposition of tariffs on Canada would necessarily necessitate a response,” said Wilkinson during his keynote address at an event organized by the Atlantic Council in Washington on Tuesday.
“But this kind of damage to our economies is truly unnecessary and it is ultimately the people of our respective countries who will pay the costs.”
Wilkinson suggested in place of punitive cross-border tariffs, Canada and the U.S. could form an “energy alliance” that would allow both countries to “achieve our shared vision of affordable energy bills for families, strong and secure economies and North America as the world’s dominant energy supplier.”
“That is why our focus is to move beyond this conversation to one about collaboration on the border, on the scourge of illegal drugs, on our economy and certainly on energy and critical minerals,” he said.
While billions of dollars of trade between the two nations is conducted daily, the energy sector is clearly the most dominant area of these dealings, with the bulk of energy being exported to the U.S. from Canada.
Alternative suppliers of Canadian exports — potash, for instance – are often problematic countries like Russia or China.
“In the area of critical minerals, typically, the alternative source of supply to Canada is China,” said Wilkinson.
However, once materials are refined, manufactured and processed in the U.S., Canada then often becomes their largest consumer.
“Our partnership is effectively hard-wired,” noted Wilkinson. “Thirty-six states rely on Canada as their number one export market. Canadian consumers and businesses purchase more goods from the United States than China, Japan and Germany combined.”
Wilkinson was one of several key cabinet ministers who travelled to Washington this week to continue making the case for the U.S. to remove tariffs on Canadian goods after the 30-day reprieve is concluded.
“In the areas of critical minerals, needed energy, defence and aerospace applications, there is for example, an opportunity to jointly invest in a project that would enable greater germanium supply which can displace germanium the United States has been purchasing from China, which China has recently cut off,” said Wilkinson.
The energy minister told the chairman of the Atlantic Council, David Goldwyn, that the initial news of the tariffs was a “shock” to Canada, citing that the two countries first established free trade in 1988 and that a similar exchange had already been in place for the auto sector dating back to the 1960s.
“We have looked to deepen the integration over the past number of decades because it was so obvious that we were both extracting mutual benefit from the trade that existed,” he said.
Wilkinson said he hopes that there is still time to “walk back from the brink” but the imposition of tariffs has forced Canada to reflect on “whether, perhaps in some areas, we are too dependent on infrastructure in particular that flows only through the United States.”
The energy minister is poised to meet with newly appointed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who will be in charge of U.S. President Donald Trump’s energy agenda, as well as other Republicans in Washington this week.
On the subject of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, which is scheduled for renegotiation next year, Wilkinson thinks that there is “more that needs to be done” to ensure that these kinds of tariffs won’t be coming back.
“Why does the United States purchase so much uranium and potash from Russia? You don’t need to. If we actually worked together, you can be completely secure. Why are so many critical minerals being purchased from China? You don’t need to,” said Wilkinson. “The same thing is true for oil and gas.”
Wilkinson went on to say that by implementing joint tools to pull forward many of these energy projects both countries would be able to make joint investments to further deepen ties.
“But it starts with us agreeing that collaboration and that deepening our relationship is the right way to go,” he said.
