Carney heads to Asia to promote Canada trade as US ties falter

TORONTO, Canada, Feb 26: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney flies to Asia on Thursday for a three-country tour with a first stop in India, where he hopes to double trade to offset the damage of his country's fracturing relations with the United States.

Carney's India visit marks the latest effort to reset bilateral ties that effectively collapsed after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists on Canadian territory.

For Carney, the trip that includes stops in Australia and Japan is part of a broad effort to pivot the Canadian economy away from excessive reliance on its southern neighbor.

In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and upended global trade through a flurry of tariffs, more than 75 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade that year exceeded $900 billion.

US tariffs targeting specific sectors have hurt the Canadian economy over the past year.

But Trump has so far broadly adhered to the North American free trade agreement he signed during his first term and 85 percent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free.

The US president has said, however, that he may scrap that deal, calling it "irrelevant" with "no real advantage" to the United States.

Carney has made boosting commerce with Europe and Asia cornerstones of his strategy to backstop Canada's economy, should free trade with Washington collapse.

University of Toronto public policy expert Drew Fagan said Carney was wise to pursue other markets, calling for a strategy that seeks to do "more elsewhere, when there's an opportunity."

The prime minister has said he wants to more than double two-way trade with India by 2030, eyeing a target of Can$70 billion ($51 billion) by 2030.    �"AFP