Trudeau Says IRA's North American Provisions Result of Canadian Lobbying

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a conference that Canada had to talk the U.S. out of structuring its Inflation Reduction Act electric vehicle incentives so that they were tied solely to U.S. production.

Trudeau, speaking by video link at a Reuters conference on Nov. 30, said that Canadians demonstrated "that the Canadian and U.S. economies are so seamlessly integrated in so many ways that protectionism against … Canadian companies actually ends up hurting U.S. companies and U.S. workers in various ways."

He said that as a result of the arguments Canada advanced, members of Congress changed the language so that the majority of battery components could come from North America, rather than just from inside the U.S.

Trudeau said that in raw materials, battery assembling and advanced battery recycling, Canada has the second strongest battery supply chain in the world, behind China.

"That’s what the world is going to be looking to Canada for, and we are extremely well positioned for that," he said.

Trudeau said the energy crunch that Western Europe is facing after Russia weaponized its natural gas and oil sales is convincing government officials to say, "if we can't rely on authoritarian countries that use their providing of cheap resources as an economic and political lever against our democracies, how can we build more reliable supply chains? And that’s where Canada -- on energy, on critical minerals -- is very focused on stepping up."

He said that Canada has lithium, cobalt, nickel and other metals that the world needs for the energy transition.

But it's not just natural resources Canada has to offer, Trudeau said -- he said some businesses are only now realizing that Canada is a leader in artificial intelligence. He said that Canada is the country with the fastest growing population in the G-7, and the country most open to immigration. That makes it "very, very interesting to companies looking to get a foothold in North America."

And, Trudeau noted, Canada is the only G-7 member that has a free trade agreement with all of the other members.