Jan 23, 2017
BNN's Daily Chase: Trudeau, ministers prep for trade talks with Trump amid ‘collateral damage’ fears
By Andrew Bell
Now that the inauguration razzmatazz is history, Canada’s task of dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump begins in earnest.
The prime minister is set to huddle in Calgary with his ministers for two days, working out a game plan for possible renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
David MacNaughton, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, says the Canada-U.S. relationship doesn’t seem to be a major target as Trump gets set to revise U.S. trade relations with the world in a bid to get better deals for America.
The envoy says his early talks with the new administration indicate that “they’re principally focused on the countries” that have big trade surpluses with the United States. “I don’t think Canada’s the focus at all.”
But any changes to NAFTA counld menace Canada’s export-dependent economy. “That’s what we’ve got to worry about,” MacNaughton said. “That we’re collateral damage.”
TRUMP'S EFFECT ON ENERGY
At 10 a.m. ET, we’ll get perspective from author and entrepreneur Brett Wilson, a co-founder of investment bank FirstEnergy Capital, now part of GMP FirstEnergy. We’ll ask him to assess whether a surge in oil and gas production under Trump increases competition for Canadian energy.
KEYSTONE TALKS
And at 11:40 a.m. ET on Commodities, we’ll hear from a former top TransCanada (TRP.TO) pipeline builder who has chronicled the failure to win U.S. approval for the Keystone XL project in a new book.
Dennis McConaghy author of Dysfunction: Canada after Keystone XL, argues that if former Prime Minister Stephen Harper had moved to implement a price on Canadian carbon emissions, it might have persuaded formt U.S. President Barack Obama to approve KXL.
We’ll get McConaghy’s view on Canada’s next move to push KXL forward and also protect our energy sector as Ottawa moves toward a national carbon price even as Washington seems deadset against the idea.
TAYLOR MADE
Finally, don’t miss our feature guest at 3 p.m. ET, the always outspoken David Taylor, president of Taylor Asset Management.
His IA Clarington Focused Canadian Equity fund posted a sizzling return of 33.9 per cent last year. Top holdings as of Dec 31 included four energy producers and auto parts maker Magna International (MG.TO). We’ll see if he has been tweaking any of those big positions.