Canada PM turns from US to Asia for trade

Carney offers reliable alternative to the US

- USIAN AUSTEN

Prime Minister Mark Carney shakes hands with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Mr Carney is banking on Asia to help move Canada away from its economic dependence on the United States.REUTERS

As Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada left for a weeklong swing through Asia, he faced a worsening economic picture at home.

Factories were closing and jobs were being lost. Inflation was edging up, and there were signs that the country was sliding toward a recession.

Then US President Donald Trump made matters more fraught when, angered over a television advertisement that featured former President Ronald Reagan criticising tariffs, he vowed to impose even more levies on Canada.

Now, with relations with the United States at one of their lowest points, Mr Carney is under pressure to show he has a plan to move Canada away from its long-established economic dependence on its neighbour, and he is banking on Asia to help.

But that carries its own risks. Mr Carney said he planned to meet this week in South Korea with China's top leader, hoping to reset a caustic relationship, end a trade dispute and restore closer ties.

Canada has had deeply tense relations with China over, among other things, findings of Chinese interference in Canadian elections. And, adding complexity to the pivot Mr Carney is attempting, the Trump administration may be unhappy with his China overtures, even as the American president is also scheduled to meet with China's top leader, Xi Jinping, this week.

Faced with a trade war with the United States, Canada's biggest trading partner, Mr Carney has set an ambitious goal of doubling Canadian exports to other countries within a decade. Expanding trade with Asia is central to Mr Carney's strategy.