Mark Carney takes his investment pitch from ‘Maple Davos’ to Strasbourg

{"text":[[{"start":9.16,"text":"Mark Carney took his push to diversify Canada’s economy away from the US on to the global stage this week, risking a fresh rupture with Donald Trump."}],[{"start":18.62,"text":"It began on Monday with a pitch to bring foreign cash into the country by offering tax breaks and private investments in Canada’s airports at a kind of “Maple Davos”."}],[{"start":28.32,"text":"The government said it raised C$500bn (US$357bn) in new investment largely from Canadian institutions after the summit of about 200 financiers at Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel, which included the chief executives of BlackRock, Barclays and Singapore’s Temasek. But there were few immediate announcements of new foreign investment."}],[{"start":52.12,"text":"Former finance minister John Manley told the FT: “While bringing global investors to Toronto is already a success in itself, the proof that Carney’s strategy is working will only be present when the investors open their cheque books and projects break ground.”"}],[{"start":67.76,"text":"The prime minister hopes to attract C$1tn in new investment to Canada in the next five years, supercharging his plan to decouple from the US and put his country at the vanguard of a new alliance of “middle powers”. He has pitched his nation as a haven for investors amid escalating trade tensions fomented by the US president, who continues to refer to Canada as the “51st state” of the US."}],[{"start":92.56,"text":"Those tensions led some executives to think twice about attending Carney’s summit this week."}],[{"start":97.52,"text":"“I was waiting for the call from the White House,” said one attendee."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":101.16,"text":"At a welcome dinner of salmon, beef and Canadian wine on Monday evening, Carney repeated his now famous line from Davos that the global order was undergoing a “rupture”. But he offered no clear roadmap for investment and growth for Canada, according to people familiar with the matter."}],[{"start":117.28,"text":"On Tuesday, the prime minister sweetened his pitch by announcing an expansion in tax deductions from 15 per cent to roughly two-thirds of capital investment. This, he claimed, would offer the lowest marginal effective tax rate in the G7 and “make Canada by far the most tax-competitive advanced economy for new investment”."}],[{"start":135.76,"text":"He also said the country would seek private investment through “long-term concessions” to operate Canada’s four largest airports. The government has hired Morgan Stanley and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to advise on the process, said people familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley and CIBC declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported the mandate."}],[{"start":157.56,"text":"“Better than [Monday] night,” said one attendee after Carney’s remarks on Tuesday."}],[{"start":163.08,"text":"There was a full conference programme to make the case for Canadian investment but much of the action was in discreet meeting rooms a few floors up in the hotel."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":172.204,"text":"CS Venkatakrishnan, chief executive of UK-based bank Barclays, described Carney’s efforts as “heroic”, while Christian Sewing, CEO at Deutsche Bank, said Canada “is now on the map, far more important than ever before”."}],[{"start":185.64,"text":"“Historically, we’ve always been challenged in finding deals within Canada itself,” said BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink. “And I do believe what has been announced the last two days is going to be opening up the opportunities to bring forth more capital to Canada.”"}],[{"start":201.36,"text":"But investors need to overcome a morass of regulations, tax and interprovincial barriers in the country if they are to participate in Carney’s pitchbook of Canadian infrastructure projects, which range from natural gas processing hubs to oil pipelines and data centres."}],[{"start":216.22,"text":"That is a big ask for a country that has been dependent on selling oil, lumber and agricultural products to the US for more than a century."}],[{"start":224.24,"text":"Finance minister François-Philippe Champagne managed expectations by telling reporters that success was “the momentum in the room”."}],[{"start":231.44,"text":"One member of Carney’s administration said the benefits from the summit would not be known for another 12 months or more."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":237.84,"text":"The stakes of the prime minister’s effort to diversify Canada’s economy away from the US were underscored just days before the summit, when Trump banned some Canadian imports such as dairy products and motorcycles. The two countries have also imposed tariffs on each other’s imports."}],[{"start":253.56,"text":"In the end, there was no public interference or heckling from Trump during Carney’s summit, or even much of a mention of the US president. His main cameo was in an anecdote the prime minister recounted about the time when Trump gave him a golden key to the White House as a gift."}],[{"start":267.44,"text":"“He’s like: ‘It’s a key to the White House. You just bring it, they’ll let you in,’” said Carney. “And then he says: ‘Maybe they’ll shoot you.’ And that sort of sums up the relationship.”"}],[{"start":278.44,"text":"Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, who Carney worked for during the global financial crisis when Bank of Canada’s governor, delivered a closing speech highlighting the bipartisan support in the country for Carney’s agenda."}],[{"start":290.28,"text":"“Canada should be an energy superpower. Whatever the energy mix of the future, Canada should be a major and a global supplier,” he said."}],[{"start":299.2,"text":"Immediately after the summit, Carney travelled to Strasbourg to broaden his pitch with an address to the European parliament on Thursday."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":306.28,"text":"Pursuing closer ties with Europe has been central to Carney’s plan to lessen Canadian dependence on US trade, which is the buyer of more than 70 per cent of the nation’s exports."}],[{"start":316.4,"text":"That plan was given a boost when European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen endorsed Carney’s push for Canada to become an “associate member” of the EU."}],[{"start":325.46,"text":"This is when the risk of a further “rupture” to global trade inherent in Carney’s plan became apparent."}],[{"start":331.56,"text":"Trump warned that such a Canada-EU deal would be considered a “hostile act” and threatened to impose “very serious tariffs” on the bloc."}],[{"start":339.64,"text":"The risk of tariffs aside, sceptics have cautioned that trade with Europe is unlikely to be enough on its own to pick up the slack from lessening Canada’s dependence on the US."}],[{"start":349.28,"text":"Canada’s economy grew 1.7 per cent in 2025 while the EU’s expanded 1.5 per cent. Both lagged behind the US’s 2.1 per cent growth."}],[{"start":359.28,"text":"“Canada has low productivity, Canada is not in innovative sectors. Canada has the same problems that the European Union has,” Jeremy Carter, global analytical head at Fitch Ratings, told a Milken conference in Toronto."}],[{"start":372.48,"text":"“Canada needs to have productive trade relations with the US and I don’t think it’s going to replace that with Europe.”"}],[{"start":385.32,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789865223_9465.mp3"}