Middle powers push on trade
- Canada named a broad advisory team to manage tense economic relations with the United States. - Ontario's representative to the U.S. said a bilateral deal to resolve trade frictions could be reached in 2026. - Meanwhile India‑U.S. trade talks restarted April 20–22, signalling active negotiations alongside Canada's outreach to Washington. ( )
Canada and India both moved this week to keep trade talks with Washington alive as tariffs and treaty reviews reshape access to the U.S. market. (reuters.com, thehindubusinessline.com, newswire.ca) Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on April 21 created an Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations and said it will meet first on April 27. The panel is chaired by Dominic LeBlanc and includes business, labor and political figures such as Candace Laing, Darryl White, Lana Payne, Jean Charest and Erin O’Toole. (newswire.ca, cbc.ca) Carney’s government is assembling that group as Canada heads toward the joint review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, known in Canada as CUSMA. Reuters reported the new body keeps only four members from the Trudeau-era council it replaces. (cbc.ca, msn.com) In Toronto, Ontario’s representative in Washington, David Paterson, said on April 21 that a deal to ease U.S.-Canada trade friction could be reached in 2026 and might even happen this year. Paterson’s job is to press Ontario’s case in Washington, where the province says it does more than $450 billion in annual trade with the United States. (bloomberg.com, news.ontario.ca) Ontario says that if it were a country, it would rank as the United States’ third-largest trading partner, and one in five jobs in the province depends on trade. That helps explain why Ontario has kept its own full-time representative in Washington since Paterson’s appointment took effect in November 2023. (news.ontario.ca) India restarted its own talks with the United States in Washington from April 20 to 22, with chief negotiator Darpan Jain leading a delegation of about a dozen officials. The agenda includes the first phase of a bilateral trade agreement and two U.S. Section 301 investigations that Indian officials want terminated. (thehindubusinessline.com, fortuneindia.com) Those India-U.S. talks resumed after a February meeting was postponed when the U.S. tariff structure changed. Indian officials said a framework announced on February 7 now needs to be “recalibrated” after Washington shifted to a 10% tariff on all countries for 150 days starting February 24. (fortuneindia.com, thehindubusinessline.com) Canada and India are not pursuing the same deal, but both are trying to lock in better terms with the same partner while U.S. tariff policy remains in flux. For Ottawa, that means preparing for a North American treaty review; for New Delhi, it means rewriting parts of a bilateral pact that no longer matches the tariff math it faced in February. (newswire.ca, fortuneindia.com) The next marker comes quickly: Carney’s new advisory committee meets April 27, just days after India’s April 20-22 round in Washington wraps. Both governments are betting that steady talks, not distance from Washington, will shape what comes next. (newswire.ca, thehindubusinessline.com)
