But experts said the meeting would likely take a wider lens on the trade relationship, focusing on how the countries could align their policies to take on larger challenges like climate change, economic and security threats from China, and the war in Ukraine.
“The competition is not within North America, it is without,” Louise Blais, a former Canadian diplomat, said in a virtual panel discussion Wednesday hosted by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas and the Woodrow Wilson Center Canada Institute.
One issue that would be raised in this context, Ms. Blais said, is that of the critical minerals that power electric vehicle batteries, like lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt. China dominates the global processing of these important materials, and U.S. officials have begun holding talks with allies about new sourcing arrangements.
Canada has large reserves of critical minerals that could be developed with U.S. investment and assistance, Ms. Blais said. But the Canadian government will want to make clear to the United States that it is not interested in “just a raw export of those minerals.” Instead, it would argue for developing integrated, continental supply chains for electric vehicles that will reinforce the Canadian manufacturing sector.
“This is what I’d love to see coming out of this meeting, a reaffirmation on the part of the president and the prime minister that we’re going to be developing our industrial policy together and in a comprehensive, integrated way,” Ms. Blais said.
Some U.S. provisions to offer incentives for the production of high-tech equipment have rankled allies in the European Union, South Korea, Britain and elsewhere who say they unfairly penalize foreign companies.
As a result of an aggressive lobbying push last year, Canadian companies qualify for some of these benefits, such as tax incentives for electric vehicles that source critical minerals from Canada or Mexico. But Canadian officials remain concerned about the potential for large U.S. subsidies and other requirements for using American-made materials to tilt the playing field and draw more manufacturing south.
