It’s time for us to play the field

AMID US president Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Sigmar Gabriel, former German vice chancellor and foreign minister, made a curious suggestion in an interview with German media outlet The Pioneer: invite Canada into the European Union. Soon after, Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, addressed Canada on X to say that “[t]here is no reason why EU membership should be off the table.” The thought of this North Atlantic alliance excited some Canadians and Europeans—one YouTube video even theorized how “CANEU” (read: canoe) would be a “global superpower.”

To learn more about what the possibilities are for Canada and the EU, I spoke with Mark Camilleri, president and CEO of the Canada EU Trade and Investment Association—CEUTIA—based in Brussels.

“In terms of trade, what similarities do Canada and the EU share?”

There’s a lot of complementarities when you go across sectors. Take mining, for example. Canada has an abundance of natural resources that the EU doesn’t have, but Europe creates and makes a lot of industrial equipment that helps extract those resources. Europe has a certain need for these resources as part of their own economic security.

If you take a look at the fertilizer that Canada produces, Europe needs it to support their agricultural sector. Another example is nuclear energy. Nuclear is going through a renaissance at the moment, and Canada can basically cover the full supply chain from mining uranium to building nuclear reactors.

  • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 hours ago

    Too much of the economy is based around the auto industry, too many social and environmental issues are based around everything structured around cars.

    i. Governments throw lots of money toward the car industry, tax cuts for the factories, subsidized wages for the workers.
    ii. Owing a car is now becoming more expensive, and you need a new one every 15 years as they don’t last long. iii.Car speeds and horse power have now crept up to crazy levels. Beyond any reason of what people need. iv. Car companies are not focused on what people want, safety, instead they keep putting more horse power into cars. v. Massive environmental costs in terms of pollution and sprawl. vi. Oil companies are killing the planet and causing wars.

    Almost everything when we talk of the ‘real’ economy, we mean car factories and oil wells.