Trudeau: US, Europe Nearly Pushed Canada Toward China

Speaking at a business conference in Singapore on Thursday, former prime minister Justin Trudeau said pressure from the United States and European firms nearly pushed Canada toward accepting Chinese investment in Bombardier’s C Series program.

Trudeau traced the episode to Bombardier’s decision to develop the C Series in 2008 and said the jet struggled to win airline customers amid efforts by Boeing and Airbus to limit its market access. He recounted that Chinese investors approached Bombardier after talks with Airbus collapsed in 2015 and returned after discussions with Boeing faltered in 2017, offering what he described as a “dump truck full of money” to protect Canadian jobs.

He raised the issue with leaders at the 2017 G7 summit in Sicily, telling Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and then‑President Donald Trump that their actions were pushing Canada “into China’s arms.”

Trudeau added that Canada later reached agreements with European partners to source aluminum after the United States imposed a 50% tariff on imports of the metal. He linked those steps to efforts to reduce dependence on a single market and to avoid what he called economic coercion.

Also at the Singapore conference, Mark Carney, who is leading Canada’s public role in the USMCA review, rejected the idea that Canada should be a supplicant in talks with Washington. “It’s not a case where there is someone making demands, and a supplicant,” Carney told reporters, adding that a negotiated outcome would take time.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer warned that if Canada did not agree to talks on broader rules of origin — the criteria that allow goods to enter the United States duty‑free — Washington might consider other border controls. Jean Charest, an adviser to Carney, stated Washington sought “a lot of concessions from Canada” before formal bilateral talks began.

Mexico has completed two rounds of talks with the United States and will hold its first formal negotiating round next month; no date has been set for talks with Canada. Carney said contacts between Canadian and U.S. officials continue at many levels.

Canada responded to U.S. tariffs with retaliatory countermeasures and some provinces removed U.S. alcohol from store shelves. Official data cited by Trudeau’s office showed Canadian trips to the United States fell 22% in 2025. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a Senate hearing he found it “outrageous” that Canada would not restock U.S. spirits.

The remarks came amid an ongoing USMCA review that the three countries had aimed to finish by July 1, a timetable participants say has been disrupted by last year’s tariff measures.