Latest news with #tradenegotiations
CTV News
15 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
B.C. Premier to discuss tariffs and pipelines during annual summer summit
B.C. Premier David Eby appears in Vancouver, on Monday, May 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck B.C Premier David Eby joined his counterparts in Ontario's cottage county Monday for an annual summer summit, hosted this year by Premier Doug Ford. The focus of the three-day summit is fighting U.S. President Donald Trump's looming tariffs, set to kick in Aug. 1. Eby said Monday that he wants to see softwood lumber front and centre in trade negotiations and is open to export quotas on Canadian lumber. 'If we could get a deal on this, it would support Americans, it would support Canadians and it would be a net win,' he told reporters. 'I'm a huge fan of the idea, I've been advocating for that with the prime minister. Let's get a deal done, and I'm hopeful he's been hearing that message.' Monday's events included a session with First Nations leaders who have pushed back on legislation designed to fast-track infrastructure and energy projects and are calling for more consultation. The premiers emerged from the day's meeting expressing support for including the prime minister in a follow-up meeting with First Nations leadership. Another issue on deck is removing inter provincial trade barriers, something the provincial leaders seem to unanimously support. More controversial are ongoing calls, particularly from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for more pipelines through B.C. Eby is on record as opposing the idea, but the Opposition says the province would benefit. 'British Columbia is in a unique position where we could be the nation builder, we could be opening up our ports, getting our natural gas out to international markets, getting our oil out to international markets and becoming that unifying factor of all of Canada,' said B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad. Pipelines didn't come up during the day's meetings, but Ford said he expected they would during an evening barbecue at his family's cottage. 'There's going to be a great conversation around the dinner table tonight, and everyone lets their hair down,' he told reporters. The premiers will be back at it Tuesday, along with the prime minister, plotting ways to strengthen Canada's economy to respond to the latest tariff threats from Trump.
South China Morning Post
21 hours ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Argentina eases visa requirements for Chinese nationals in new overture to Beijing
Argentina on Monday announced a loosening of visa requirements for Chinese citizens in a new overture to Beijing as President Javier Milei seeks to recalibrate his foreign policy amid delayed trade negotiations with the US. Under the new policy, effective Tuesday, Chinese nationals with US or European Union visas will not need Argentine visas to enter the country for tourism or business. Until now, all Chinese citizens were subject to Argentina's full visa requirements. The policy change follows weeks of uncertainty around the timing of a long-anticipated tariff agreement with Washington and comes amid growing US discomfort over Argentina's warming ties with Beijing. In early April, US Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone publicly criticised a long-standing currency swap agreement between China and Argentina, calling it a form of 'extortion' and urging Buenos Aires to sever the deal. China's foreign ministry responded at the time by accusing Washington of attempting to 'drive a wedge' between China and its Latin American partners. The dispute highlighted the delicate position Milei faces as he courts both superpowers.
Arab News
a day ago
- Business
- Arab News
Trump's renewed interest in Pakistan has India recalibrating China ties
NEW DELHI, India: US President Donald Trump's lunch meeting with Pakistan's military chief prompted a private diplomatic protest from India in a warning to Washington about risks to their bilateral ties while New Delhi is recalibrating relations with China as a hedge, officials and analysts said. The meeting and other tensions in the US-India relationship, after decades of flourishing ties, have cast a shadow in trade negotiations, they said, as Trump's administration weighs tariffs against one of its major partners in the Indo-Pacific. India blames Pakistan, especially its military establishment, for supporting what it calls cross-border terrorism and has told the US it is sending the wrong signals by wooing Field Marshal Asim Munir, three senior Indian government officials directly aware of the matter told Reuters. It has created a sore spot that will hamper relations going forward, they said. Pakistan denies accusations that it supports militants who attack Indian targets and that New Delhi has provided no evidence that it is involved. US-India ties have strengthened in the past two decades despite minor hiccups, at least partly because both countries seek to counter China. The current problems are different, said Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation think tank. 'The frequency and intensity with which the US is engaging with Pakistan, and seemingly not taking Indian concerns into account, especially after India's recent conflict with Pakistan, has contributed to a bit of a bilateral malaise.' 'The concern this time around is that one of the triggers for broader tensions, that being Trump's unpredictability, is extending into the trade realm with his approach to tariffs,' he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office and India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The foreign ministry has previously said that it had 'taken note' of the Trump-Munir meeting. A US official said they do not comment on private diplomatic communications and that the United States enjoys strong relationships with both India and Pakistan. 'These relationships stand on their own merits, and we do not compare our bilateral relationships with one another,' the US official said. LUNCH AT THE WHITE HOUSE The US seems to have taken a different tack on Pakistan after a brief conflict broke out between the nuclear-armed rivals in May when India launched strikes on what it called terrorist targets across the border in response to a deadly attack on tourists from the majority Hindu community in Indian Kashmir the previous month. After four days of aerial dogfights, missile and drone attacks, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire. Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan have skirmished regularly and fought three full-scale wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the disputed Kashmir region. A few weeks after the May fighting, Trump hosted Munir for lunch at the White House, a major boost in ties with the country, which had largely languished under Trump's first term and Joe Biden. It was the first time a US president had hosted the head of Pakistan's army, considered the most powerful man in the country, at the White House unaccompanied by senior Pakistani civilian officials. Indian leaders have said Munir's view of India and Pakistan is steeped in religion. 'Tourists were murdered in front of their families after ascertaining their faith,' Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in May, referring to the Kashmir attack. 'To understand that, you've got to also have a Pakistani leadership, especially their army chief, who is driven by an extreme religious outlook.' Pakistan says it is Modi who is driven by religious extremism, and that his brand of Hindu nationalism has trampled on the rights of India's large Muslim minority. Modi and the Indian government say they do not discriminate against minorities. Munir's meeting in the White House added to India's chagrin over Trump's repeated insistence that he averted nuclear war between the two nations by threatening to stop trade negotiations with them. The comment drew a sharp response from Modi, who told Trump that the ceasefire was achieved through talks between army commanders of the two nations, and not US mediation. In the days following his June 18 meeting with Munir, people from Modi's office and India's national security adviser's office made separate calls to their US counterparts to register a protest, two of the officials said. The protest has not been previously reported. 'We have communicated to the US our position on cross-border terrorism, which is a red line for us,' said a senior Indian official. 'These are difficult times ... Trump's inability to understand our concerns does create some wrinkle in ties,' he added, seeking anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Trump and Munir discussed continuation of a counter-terrorism collaboration, under which the US has previously provided weapons to Pakistan, a non-NATO US ally, and talked about ways to further strengthen ties, a Pakistani readout of the meeting said. That raised concern in New Delhi that any arms Pakistan receives from the US could be turned on India if the neighbors end up in conflict again, two of the officials said. HARDER STANCE Despite what used to be public displays of bonhomie between Trump and Modi, India has been taking a slightly harder stance against the US in recent weeks, while trade discussions have also slowed, the Indian officials and an Indian industry lobbyist said. Modi declined an invitation from Trump to visit Washington after the G7 meeting in Canada in June. Earlier this month, New Delhi proposed retaliatory duties against the US at the World Trade Organization, showing trade talks were not going as smoothly as they were before the India-Pakistan clashes. India, like other nations, is trying to figure out a way to deal with Trump and is recalibrating ties with China as a hedge, said Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at India's Observer Research Foundation think tank. 'Certainly there is an outreach to China,' he said. 'And I think it is is also reaching out.' Last week, India's Jaishankar made his first visit to Beijing since a deadly 2020 border clash between Indian and Chinese troops. India is also making moves to ease restrictions on investments from China that were imposed following the 2020 clash. The thaw comes despite India's prickly relations with China and Beijing's close ties and military support to Pakistan. But New Delhi's concern about Trump's own engagement with China, which has ranged from conciliatory to confrontational, appears to have contributed to its shift in stance on Beijing. 'With an unpredictable dealmaker in the White House, New Delhi cannot rule out Sino-US rapprochement,' said Christopher Clary, an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany, New York. 'India is troubled by Chinese help to Pakistan and growing Chinese influence elsewhere in India's near abroad, such as Bangladesh. Yet New Delhi has largely concluded that it should respond to creeping Chinese influence by focusing its pressures on its nearest neighbors and not on China.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Carney says US deal that works for Canada isn't on table yet
(Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday said working through issues related to softwood lumber is a top priority in ongoing trade negotiations with the U.S., but a deal that works for Canadian workers isn't yet on the table. Speaking to reporters in Hamilton, Carney pointed out that U.S. trade deals with other counties are going to involve very high tariffs, but he declined to say what, if any, tariff level would be acceptable for Canada as part of a deal. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Reuters
6 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Carney says US deal that works for Canada isn't on table yet
July 16 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday said working through issues related to softwood lumber is a top priority in ongoing trade negotiations with the U.S., but a deal that works for Canadian workers isn't yet on the table. Speaking to reporters in Hamilton, Carney pointed out that U.S. trade deals with other counties are going to involve very high tariffs, but he declined to say what, if any, tariff level would be acceptable for Canada as part of a deal.
