Canada's top envoy to US will resign before review of free trade agreement
Toronto (AP): Canada's ambassador to the US for the last six years said Tuesday she's resigning next year as the two major trading partners plan to review the free trade agreement.
Ambassador Kirsten Hillman said in a letter it is the right time to put in place someone who will oversee talks about the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that is up review in 2026.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Hillman “prepared the foundations for Canada in the upcoming review" of the agreement.
Carney noted she's one of the longest-serving ambassadors to the United States in Canada's history.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent Hillman to the embassy as deputy ambassador in 2017. She became the first woman to represent Canada as ambassador in the US in 2019.
Hillman helped lead the trade negotiations during US President Donald Trump's first term as deputy and as ambassador worked with US and Chinese officials to win the release of two Canadians detained in China.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-US trade, and Hillman had been leading trade talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said on social media that Hillman has been an “awesome and well-respected” contributor to the US-Canada relationship.
“I value your friendship and wish you all the best in your next adventure. You will be missed,” Hoekstra said.
Trump ended trade talks with Carney in October after the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement in the US, which upset the US president. That followed a spring of acrimony, since abated, over Trump's insistence that Canada should become the 51st US state.
Asked this week when trade talks would resume, Trump said, “we'll see.”
Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and more than 75% of Canada's exports go to the US Most exports to the US are exempted by the USMCA trade agreement but that deal is up for review.
Carney aims to double non-US trade over the next decade.
About 60% of US crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of US electricity imports as well.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.
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LPG issue: Lok Sabha proceedings adjourned again amid opposition protests
New Delhi (PTI): Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm on Friday amid relentless protests by opposition members over the LPG situation and hike in its price due to the ongoing West Asia crisis.
As the House reassembled at 12 noon after an earlier adjournment over the same issue, Opposition members trooped into the Well and raised slogans against the government.
After laying of papers, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for refusing to understand the pulse of the people saying if the principal opposition continues to behave in such a manner, people will punish them severely.
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"Their leader is refusing to change. Now the members are also behaving like him. Their leader is indulging in drama in Parliament premises by holding plate and glass. They think that by doing such theatrics they will be able to draw the attention of the people, but people know them very well that is why they have not been able to come to power," Rijiju said.
Expressing disappointment over the Congress behaviour, the minister said no one in the Congress party is making their leader see logic.
"Still there is time to change otherwise people of the country will punish you severely," he said.
As the opposition refused to relent, the Chair adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to respond to a debate on the second batch of supplementary demands for grants this afternoon.
