Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wants a closer relationship with the European Union and is exploring whether his country could become an “associate member” of the bloc, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
The EU, which has not been flexible about membership rules in the past, is open to the idea of granting Canada a yet-to-be-created status of associate membership, the newspaper reported on Sunday, citing unnamed officials both from the EU and Canada.
Canada’s embassy in Brussels and spokespeople at the European Commission did not respond to requests for comment.
Canada’s escalating trade war with the United States has added urgency to its strategic pivot towards other trading partners.
Relations between Ottawa and Washington have deteriorated sharply since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year due to disagreements over trade and other issues.
The trade dispute has led to tariffs on tens of billions of dollars in cross-border trade.
Trump on Sunday renewed his criticism, calling Canada “the worst country to deal with” but added he thought the nation was “dying to make a deal”.
“They’ve ripped off our country for years,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The US president reiterated his intention to impose new tariffs on cars, trucks and auto parts from Canada from January.
Canada and the EU are discussing ways of allowing Canada’s goods, services and workers involved in strategic supply chains such as energy, AI, defence and critical minerals to move freely, thus effectively shifting the EU border, the Wall Street Journal said.
Canada and the EU are also talking about laying underwater cables, jointly constructing data centres, cloud storage and new satellite networks as well as infrastructure to ship Canadian energy to the EU, the newspaper said.
Carney has spoken regularly with several EU leaders, most notably French President Emmanuel Macron, about the possibility of letting Canadians live and work visa-free in the EU, the WSJ said.
Macron’s office separately confirmed that he will meet Carney on September 20 in the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a group of islands off Canada’s Atlantic coast.
The meeting marks the first official visit by a Canadian prime minister to the archipelago and “symbolises the strength of the relationship that unites our two countries”, the Elysee said.
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