As its trade relationship with the U.S. atrophies, Canada looks to Europe

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to address the European Parliament later this month. Given the ongoing trade war with the U.S., Canada is looking to reduce its dependence on its not-so-neighborly neighbor to the south. But could the trade war push Canada to go so far as to join the European Union?

That's the very question at the heart of a recent piece from journalist Ishan Tharoor, global affairs columnist at The New Yorker. He recently joined “Marketplace Morning Report” host Kimberly Adams.

Kimberly Adams: Before we dive into your column, I want to go back to January of this year: You were at the speech Prime Minister Carney gave at the World Economic Forum. Can you talk about how that speech almost foreshadowed what was to come in terms of Canada's approach to foreign policy this year?

Ishan Tharoor: Yes. I was in Davos at the World Economic Forum, and Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, gave what became the kind of defining speech of that event, where he effectively talked about how all this rhetoric about a rules-based order, the international system, such as it was — that we have to relook beyond that now. That was a fiction, perhaps, and whatever existed before no longer quite stands. And we "middle powers" — and he defined Canada as a middle power — have to find ways to band together and stand up to the interference and designs of more hegemonic powers.

Adams: The central thesis of your article is the possibility that Canada could possibly join the European Union. How likely of a scenario is that?

Tharoor: Yes, let's be totally clear: Canada is not about to join the European Union, but this conversation has been there, and it's been there for many years in academic circles and in some kind of wonky policy circles in Brussels and Ottawa. And it's taken a new form and shape in the shadow of Trumpism. Canada and the EU already have a very substantive set of trade agreements and close partnerships on various fronts. But there is this feeling that of all the countries outside of Europe that are most aligned to sort of the EU ethos, it is Canada — it is a social democratic state; it's a state that has abundant natural resources that, frankly, Europe needs; and the European market presents lots of opportunities for Canada's businesses.

A sense of solidarity with Europeans — that's always been there, but the conversation has accelerated. You have prominent European politicians openly talking about the idea of Canada joining the European Union. You have polls in Canada showing that close to a majority or a majority of Canadians would be interested in joining the EU. Now, I think we all know that process of joining the EU is very complicated. It requires every country in the EU supporting it. And then also the Canadians would actually want to do it, and joining the EU means a lot of things that maybe once Canadians actually think about it, they'll realize that this is just not going to work. You know, we'll have to have a very hard border with the U.S., for example, because of the EU rules.

Adams: It seems like there has been something of a global reassessment of the role the United States plays in the international power and economic dynamic. How would you place what Canada is doing in that larger shift?

Tharoor: It's striking because, of course, Canada is the U.S.'s closest ally. It's almost a little sibling to the United States. They share so much history. They share so much trade. They have always been together in various global conflicts, and to have Canada standing up and saying, "OK, we have to figure out a new global system," you know, Canada has effectively become the kind of canary in the coal mine when it comes to thinking through the new world that we live in, and that is really striking when you consider for how long Canada has just been, the closest buddy and partner of the United States.