Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Canada will seek talks with Brussels to gain access to the EU’s “Made in Europe” manufacturing scheme, its industry minister has said, as Ottawa looks to boost trade beyond the US.
Brussels last month unveiled plans to shield strategic sectors such as clean energy technology and heavy industry from unfair competition from third countries, especially China, by limiting access to subsidies and public contracts in those areas to EU-based businesses.
However, manufacturers from countries with which Brussels has trade agreements could also be included if EU companies are offered reciprocal access to public subsidies and contracts in those markets.
Canada’s industry minister Mélanie Joly told the FT that Ottawa wanted to make sure that industrial policy in the EU and Canada was “aligned”.
Asked whether that meant she thought Canada should be included in the “Made in Europe” scheme, Joly said Ottawa’s goal was “to engage the EU to have a reciprocal approach”.
“We need to be able to be aligned . . . then we will be able to actually have our businesses compete and prosper,” she said.
Any deal between Ottawa and Brussels over their industrial sectors would support Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s appeal for “middle powers” to work together to form an economic counterweight to the US and China.
Carney’s call, made at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, was intended to counter protectionism and the influence of “hegemons and hyperscalers”, Joly said.
“We need to have the middle powers working together . . . really creating an economic bloc,” Joly added in an interview on the sidelines of the Hannover Messe industry fair in Germany earlier this week.
“We want to create a level playing field . . . for European companies in Canada, but vice versa also,” she said.
Canada and the EU agreed a trade deal in 2016. But Ottawa last year also announced its own “Buy Canadian” policy, which gives preference to domestic businesses for government funding in strategic sectors such as defence, health and infrastructure.
The EU’s “Made in Europe” bill, formally called the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), is designed to boost the bloc’s manufacturing output, which fell from 17.4 per cent of EU GDP in 2000 to 14.3 per cent in 2024.
It has, however, sparked concern among industries such as the German car sector and some member states that it could create barriers to free trade.
Clauses excluding trade partners from small electric vehicle subsidies or corporate fleet schemes have also sparked fears for car sector jobs in countries such as the UK.
EU officials have told the FT they are open to deals with third countries, which could be made after the IAA has been adopted, potentially by the end of the year.
The Commission declined to comment on Joly’s intervention but a spokesperson said that the IAA proposals ensure “trade partners covered by bilateral agreements have access to our public procurement markets”.
Access for countries covered by free trade agreements “depends on the specific commitments the EU has undertaken towards each country”, the spokesperson added.
In a bid to reduce its over-reliance on trade with America, Canada wants to double its non-US exports by 2035 and raise approximately $300bn in new deals in Asia and Europe.
