Although the United States and Canada have different responses to Brussels’s suggestion that Canada become a European Union (EU) associate member as part of efforts to reduce supply chain dependence on China, analysts said the three parties can still cooperate on that goal regardless of how the proposal develops.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated on Sept. 16—when delivering her annual State of the European Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France—that the EU would use “all available tools” to reduce its trade deficit and rebalance economic relationship with Beijing, including deepening cooperation with Canada by inviting it to be the bloc’s first associate member to reduce raw materials’ reliance on communist China. …