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Canada has concluded talks with the Philippines on a free trade deal, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Saturday, as Ottawa continues to look to reduce its reliance on the US following a breakdown in relations with Washington.
“One year ago, Canada and the Philippines launched talks on a new free trade agreement,” Carney wrote in a post on social media. “Today, we’ve already concluded the negotiations.”
“We’re diversifying our trade partnerships to build a stronger, more resilient Canadian economy,” Carney, who is in Manila to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, added.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the summit, Carney said his government would work quickly to finalise the deal and that it would come into force in 2027. It is expected to take around six months for the agreement to be signed, he added.
“This is good news for Canadians in the agriculture sector, in the aerospace sector, even in AI, and our businesses working across forest products, mining, energy, services and beyond,” he told reporters.
Ottawa is also hoping to secure a broader trade deal with the 11-member ASEAN group as a whole. Negotiations on such an arrangement have been “substantially completed,” per Carney.
The prime minister said Saturday’s announcements were “part of a strategy of developing a dense web of reliable partners to create more opportunities for our businesses, more choice for Canadians, better jobs for our workers and reducing our relative reliance on the United States.”
Canada has been seeking to double non-US exports by 2035 and has been aligning itself more closely with Europe as part of its push to reduce its reliance on the US, prompted by repeated clashes with US President Donald Trump over trade.
Trump is due to arrive in Manila early next week, before heading on to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen. Carney is scheduled to next head to Cambodia before also arriving in China.