FERGUS – Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong said they look forward to working with the incoming Biden administration but challenges will remain in US-Canada relations.
Chong, who is also the official opposition’s shadow minister of foreign affairs, said there have been some difficulties in the partnership between the two countries recently.
“I think it’s been a challenging four years for Canada-US relations with the renegotiation of NAFTA with other bilateral issues such as tariffs and counter-tariffs that have been applied,” Chong said in a phone interview.
He explained that the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement has been bad for Canada as the country will lose GDP compared to NAFTA.
In his view, it’s important for Canada to have good relations with whoever occupies the White House.
“You need to find common ground whether it’s with a Trump administration or a Biden administration on the issues that matter to Canada,” Chong said.
Chong said the United States focusing domestically didn’t start with Trump in 2016 and he doesn’t see that changing too much with a new administration.
He explained that former-president Obama also withdrew the country from global leadership although in a more subtle way than Trump.
“President-elect Biden has promised to work with US allies but he didn’t campaign on taking a leadership position in the world,” Chong said.
“He didn’t campaign on broadening trade, he didn’t campaign on broadening the US on security matters around the world. I think we’re going to see a lot of the same policies coming from the US that are protectionist in their slant.”
Chong said an upcoming issue is for Canada to push the importance of the Keystone XL oil pipeline to the Americans.
The proposed pipeline would transport up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta to Nebraska.
It was previously rejected under Obama but Trump has reversed this decision.
Biden’s campaign has indicated he is not in favour and could end this project.
“We’re hoping the Canadian government makes this a top issue with the new administration and indicates how important this is not just for Canadians but for Americans,” Chong said.
“Canada has very high environmental standards and if we’re going to ensure that we meet our climate change goals then working together on issues like energy and the environment is very important.”
The continued response to COVID will be an ongoing issue for both governments but Chong said he couldn’t speculate on what could change under Biden as there is still nearly three months before his administration is sworn in.
“It’s hard to predict where we’ll be at the end of January,” Chong said.
Ultimately, Chong said Canada looks forward to working with the Biden administration to find common ground to advance Canada’s interests.
“The Canada-US relationship is the most important foreign relationship that Canada has, we share a historic alliance based on common values and close economic ties,” Chong said, adding that the two countries are bound in ways no other countries are.
“While we’ve not always agreed with our American friends, we are very bound together with them through geography, trade and family ties.”
