The five -day visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Europe offers Canada the opportunity to underpin its relationship with the European Union and show Canadian leadership in the regulation of artificial intelligence, experts say.
Trudeau will spend most of the trip in Paris for the AI action summit, the third great global meeting focused on the rapid expansion field. Then he will make a stop in Brussels for a leaders meeting of the Canadian and European Union.
The visit occurs after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, stopped his threatened tariffs on Canadian imports for almost a month, and as Trump points out that Europe could be his next goal.
“Canada won this brief appropriate and the EU has also been threatened with American tariffs, so it makes sense that Canada and the EU coordinate the answers,” said Achim Hurrelmann of the University of Carleton, who studies the EU policy.
A week ago, Trump signed an order to impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports, with a rate less than 10 percent on Canadian energy. But after two telephone calls with Trudeau, during which the prime minister presented his government's plans to address Trump's declared concerns about border security and drug trafficking, Trump suspended the tariffs until March 4.
Trump said the tariffs would be paused to see if a “final economic agreement” could be achieved with Canada.
While discussing ways to boost Canada's trade, said Hurrelmann, European representatives can ask Trudeau to explain how he managed to obtain extension.
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“The entire tariff saga has revitalized Canada's perennial debate about trade diversification, and Europe has always been a region where perception exists … trade could increase,” he said, adding that Europe can be particularly interested in the Strategic raw materials of Canada.
Canada and the EU have a friendly relationship, said Hurrelmann, and are considered well aligned in global matters through two basic agreements: the comprehensive economic and commercial agreement of the European Union of Canada and a strategic association agreement.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, recently said that Canada's commercial agreement with the European Union is “very important and is part of our vision to diversify our markets.”
Hurrelmann said that Europe and Canada have taken to strengthen ties, “especially economic ties.”
“The Canadian economy is so focused on the United States, and for the European economy, Canada is a relatively small and distant market,” he said.
But now, he said, the relationship can have the impulse he needs to go beyond status quo.
The short excursion to Brussels, said Hurrelmann, is likely that “they will indicate with each other that we will coordinate and point the same to the outside world and also to the Americans.”
It is also likely that artificial intelligence appears in conversations with EU representatives in Brussels, he said.
In a press release, the Prime Minister's office said that meetings in Brussels “will discuss ways to advance our collective efforts to strengthen transatlantic security, protect international order based on rules, continue supporting Ukraine and create opportunities for our peoples , based on the based success ”of the existing commercial agreement.
Trudeau is also scheduled to meet with NATO secretary, Mark Rutte, while in Brussels.
With Trump and the United States technological sector, backing EU efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, Hurrelmann said the EU's new artificial intelligence legislation could be a “future area of major conflict” between Europe and the United States .
The AI Action Summit in Paris follows previous international meetings in the United Kingdom and South Korea.
While these events focused more on the questions about the safety of AI and the threats posed by technology, the Paris meeting will focus on issues such as AI and public interest, the future of work, innovation and culture and confidence in the global governance of technology technology.
Trudeau will also have the opportunity to meet with other heads of state at the summit. The American vice president JD Vance will attend, and the summit will be co -presided by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the French president Emmanuel Macron.
It is also expected that China Vice President Ding Xuexiang will be in Paris, as well as the Deepseek Chinese model is shaking the field.
Deepseek offers companies access to their Chatbot from AI to a fraction of the cost of their rivals, and could push other companies to improve their models and reduce prices.
Rowan Wilkinson, research analyst at the Digital Society program in Chatham House in the United Kingdom, said that given the friction between Washington and the EU on regulation, “the specific agreements on the direction and the rules for AI seem more outside scope “.
He added in an email that with Vance confirmed to attend the summit, “China's assistance is highly anticipated and would indicate a maintained and serious dialogue between these two fundamental players.”
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press