Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says Ottawa is drawing on NAFTA’s approach to industrial integration as it pursues deeper ties with the European Union during a Canada-EU summit in Montreal.
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Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Ottawa is looking to NAFTA as a model for building a closer relationship with the European Union, arguing it offered more than a typical free-trade framework.
Speaking during the Canada-EU summit in Montreal, Joly contrasted NAFTA with CETA, saying NAFTA was “an industrial partnership” and “more than CETA,” which she said has largely been “about being able to export without tariffs.”
Joly said current discussions focus on developing deeper connections between Canadian and European industrial sectors, aiming to move “from a free-trade agreement to the idea of a common market.”
She pointed to NAFTA’s rules of origin provisions as an example of the kinds of mechanisms Ottawa wants to replicate, noting they determine when goods qualify for preferential tariff treatment. Joly described how certification works in ways that can allow approvals across markets, saying that if goods are certified in the United States, they are “automatically certified in Canada.”
According to Joly, Canada has an “immense” opportunity to reduce its dependence on the United States by deepening ties with Europe, saying the share of exports going to the U.S. fell from 75 per cent to 67 per cent and that trade flows could shift further toward Europe.
Joly said Canada already has multiple agreements with the EU, including areas such as artificial intelligence and research funding. She also said the federal government formalized Canada’s participation in SAFE in February 2026, describing it as a European programme intended to accelerate defence procurement by EU member states.
The minister suggested Ottawa is also exploring possibilities that go beyond existing arrangements, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen having suggested Canada could become an “associate member” of the EU, while details of any new relationship have not yet been defined.
As part of her summit activities, Joly visited Montreal facilities of the French company Nexans, which specializes in copper cables and wires for electrical systems. She said that when U.S. tariffs were imposed a few months earlier, the company “lost 75 per cent of their business,” and that it reversed the losses by finding new markets, reaching 14 per cent of output shipped to Europe and targeting 20 per cent.
Joly said the company has also expanded its market in Canada after that shift, regaining about 75 per cent of the 75 per cent it had lost.
Joly also linked closer Europe ties to potential changes in Canada’s reliance on the United States for undersea cables used to carry data between North America and Europe. She said the cables are currently controlled by “Big Tech,” and argued Canada needs undersea cables “owned by European and Canadian interests,” saying that approach would help ensure access to information flows if there is a conflict.
Joly said Canada has been in a trade war for more than a year and a half triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump. She added that NAFTA was torn up during Trump’s first term and that Ottawa and Washington later negotiated CUSMA to end the tariff fight, while the agreement is now subject to an annual review.
She said Trump has argued that CUSMA no longer serves the United States well and needs revision, and noted that Canada, the United States and Mexico are involved in that process, producing a less predictable trading environment.
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