Canadian Prime Minister Carney explores becoming an associate member of the EU to deal with the US-Canada trade war

(Central News Agency, Brussels, comprehensive foreign news report on the 13th) The US media "Wall Street Journal" reported today that Canadian Prime Minister Carney hopes to strengthen relations with the European Union and is exploring whether Canada can become an "associate member" of the European Union.

The EU has been inflexible on membership rules in the past, but unnamed EU and Canadian officials quoted by The Wall Street Journal said the bloc was open to granting Canada its yet-to-be-established "associate member" status.

Spokespersons for the Canadian Embassy in Brussels and the European Commission did not respond to requests for comment.

Reuters reported that the trade war between Canada and the United States has intensified, prompting Canada to accelerate its strategic shift to other trading partners.

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House as U.S. president in early 2025, relations between Canada and Washington have deteriorated rapidly, with the two sides disagreeing on trade and other issues. The trade dispute has resulted in the imposition of additional tariffs on tens of billions of dollars in cross-border trade.

The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Canada and the European Union are discussing how to allow the free flow of Canadian goods, services and workers involved in strategic supply chains such as artificial intelligence (AI), defense and critical minerals, essentially changing the EU's borders.

In addition, Canada and the EU are also discussing laying submarine cables, jointly building data centers, cloud storage, new satellite networks, and infrastructure to transport Canadian energy to the EU.

The Wall Street Journal quoted two unnamed officials familiar with the matter as saying that Mark Carney has frequently discussed with many EU leaders, especially French President Emmanuel Macron, the possibility of allowing Canadians to live and work in the EU visa-free.

The two leaders are expected to meet later this month.

Macron's office did not respond to a request for comment.