Canadian PM shuffled cabinet to reduce the reliance on US amid trade dispute

On Wednesday, May 18, 2018, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet to reduce the reliance on US amid rising tensions in US-Canada relations due to tariffs imposed on Canadian products by US. PM Trudeau stressed to divert the trade away from US to reduce the dependency on US in trade.

In the cabinet shuffle, trade minister Francois Philippe Champagne was promoted to the infrastructure portfolio.  Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is in charge of ties with US and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

PM Trudeau said that former department of Champagne has therefore been renamed as ministry of International Trade Diversification, that will be led by Jim Carr, previously the minister for natural resources.

Last year Canada signed free trade agreement with European Union and 10 Asia-Pacific nations. Recently US imposed tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and lumber wood, and in retaliation to this, Canada also imposed tariffs on numbers of US products. US president Donald Trump has also threatened to pull out of NAFTA agreement or to renegotiate it. About tariffs on Canadian products by US and Canada’s retaliatory tariffs we have described in detail in our previous article “US-Canada trade war will force Canada to end alliance with US”.