Export Growth
June 2, 2026
Canada PM makes case for more cooperation with US on aluminum, autos
Written by Stephanie Ritenbaugh
Prime Minister Mark Carney asserted the Canadian and US governments should cooperate more closely on auto manufacturing, steel, critical minerals and aluminum.
Carney made the case at the Economic Club of New York on May 28. The remarks come head of the joint review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA, on July 1.
“We have made specific practical proposals to the US administration,” Carney said in prepared remarks. “Consider aluminum. It’s basically electricity in an ingot. … And Canadian exports to the United States are the energy equivalent of 10 Hoover Dams.”
“With America’s growing energy needs because of the incredible transformation here, does it really make sense to build the gigawatts here to replace Canada?”
Carney noted that Canada is America’s biggest customer for automobiles, and “an integrated North American market for production is the best and most durable way to confront truly intense global competition.”
Canadian reserves of potash, nickel, copper, uranium, lithium, cobalt means the country “can be the most reliable supplier that America needs to put affordable food on the table, strengthen national defense and meet the exploding demand to power AI.”
Talks between Mexico and the US began May 28, with more planned June 16-17 and July 20.
On Tuesday, Canada gave the two countries official notice that it wants the trilateral agreement to be renewed. Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc was in Washington D.C. Tuesday for a meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, a member of U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet, according to a report from CBC News.
